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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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QUEEN VICTORIA. 



THE 



GOLDEN TREASURY 



OF THE 



HISTORY, TOPOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, 

ART, AND RELIGION 



VARIOUS COUNTRIES OF THE GLOBE, 



BIOGRAPHIES OF THEIR ILLUSTRIOUS PEOPLE. 



BY 



JAMES HUNTEE, A.M. 




SOLD COSTLY BY SXJB8CIlII»TIOI^. 



PHILADELPHIA. PA : 
ThAVER, NlERRIAIVI & CO. 



,H8 



THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Copyright by International Publishing Co., 1886. 



FERGUSON BROS. & CO. 
PRINTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS, 

PHILADELPHIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 




I HE study of History — including under this term not only a 
record of the great political events of different countries, but 
also of their customs, arts, sciences, literature, religion, and 
topography — has always had a special attraction for the well- 
constituted mind. Man is distinguished from the inferior 
animals as much by an intelligent curiosity as by any other endowment. It is 
this endowment, indeed, that prompts him to inquire into the unknown — to 
undertake perilous, voyages of discovery, to push his researches into the 
secrets of nature, to make costly experiments in the domains of science and 
of art. But the poet has well said: "The proper study of mankind is man;" 
and in no way can this laudable spirit of inquiry be so legitimately gratified 
as by a study of the history of one's own and other countries, such as 
we now present. 

If this be true generally, it applies with double force to our own time and 
country. The whole world is becoming knit together into one great family. 
Commerce and religion alike prompt us to regard all men as brethren. By 
means of the telegraphic wire and cable, information is now conveyed from 
clime to clime with the rapidity of thought, while the news from all lands Is 
spread before the public dally by the periodical press. But these communi- 
cations do not speak in the same way to all. To the man of culture all Is 
intelligible and clear. He peruses them with pleasure, often with profit, and 
the information thus acquired takes its due place In his well-ordered mind, 
and, remaining fixed in his memory, is added to his store of knowledge. But 

there are many to whom such communications are all but valueless. They 

0) 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

know little or nothing of the countries of which they read, and, as a conse- 
quence, news of them, or from them, is neither fully intelligible nor interesting 
to them. It does not amalgamate with anything previously in their minds, is 
imperfectly understood, and forgotten nearly as soon as read. 

In America, especially, to which men flock from all parts of the world as to 
an asylum for the oppressed, no man can afford to be ignorant of the history 
and conditions of other lands. The uninformed man cannot take a proper 
position in an intelligent community; he feels afraid to express himself, and is 
humiliated and rendered unhappy by a sense of his inferiority. 

It is with the view of putting it in the power of every inhabitant of this 
country to enroll himself in the former class that the following work has been 
compiled. The intelligent reader will perceive that it is not a mere bald 
record of dry details — a skeleton-history, in fact, as we sometimes find such 
publications to be — but that, while no fact of importance is omitted, it seizes 
more particularly on such salient events as are typical of the periods and 
countries described, and, by exhibiting these in fuller detail, endeavors to give 
the reader an insight into the life and modes of thought of the various peoples 
and times. With the object of enlivening the narrative and making it pleasing 
as well as instructive, appropriate illustrative poetical extracts are freely in- 
troduced, as well as interesting stories and legends. The topography of 
the different countries is fully exhibited and similarly treated. One feature 
well worthy of attention is the condensed reviews of the past and present state 
of the literature, religion, arts, and sciences of different countries, with brief 
biographies of the men who have most distinguished themselves in each depart- 
ment. The productions, industries, and resources of each land are fully shown, 
with its modes of government and present political situation. In short, the 
aim has been to overlook nothing that an intelligent reader will desire to learn 
concerning the countries treated. How that end has been attained it is lor 

the generous American public to determine. 

JAMES HUNTER. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

QuEKN Victoria Froulispieie. 

Oxford, England ii 

Cathedral of York 13 

Wycliffe 14 

Westminster Abbey 16 

Summer scene in England 19 

Druidical Sacrifices 25 

Alfred the Great in his Sicdv 31 

Baptism of Cnut 35 

William the Conqueror 37 

Burial of William the Conqueror ... 40 

William II. (Rufus) 41 

Henry 1 43 

Stephen 1 44 

Henry II 45 

Warwick Castle 46 

Murder of Thomas-a-Becket 47 

Gathering of Crusaders 50 

Richard I. (Cceur-deLion) 51 

King John swearing Vengeance against the 

Barons 52 

Henry III. 54 

Edward I. (Longshanks) 56 

A Tournament . 57 

Edward II 59 

The Tower of London 60 

Edward III 61 

Windsor Castle from the River .... 64 
Chaucer: Char.\cteristic Scenes of his Time 65 

Richard II 68 

Costumes of Richard II. 's Time 69 

Henry V 73 

Henry VI 74 

Margaret of Anjou and the Roiiber ... 76 

Edward IV 77 

Richard III 78 

Murder of Edward IV. 's Children ... 79 

Edward VI 84 

Mary 1 84 

Queen Elizabeth in her Youiii 85 

Sir Francis Drake 86 

Sir Walter Raleigh . . • 87 

Shakespeare 88 

Carrying Queen Elizabeth in State ... 90 
Costumes of Queen Elizabeth's Time ... 90 

Charles 1 93 

Oliver Cromwell 95 

Trial of Charles I -96 

Execution of Charles 1 97 

Milton dictating Paradise Lost to his 

Daughter loi 

Charles II. 102 

William III. (of Orange) 104 

Costumes, Time of William and Mary . . 105 

Queen Anne 106 

Costumes of Anne's Time 107 

Lord Byron 113 

Prince of Wales . 119 

Houses of Parliament, London 123 



PAGE 

Portrait of Gladstone 124 

St. Paul's Cathedral, London 127 

Irish Jaunting-car 132 

Bessbrook Linen Mills and Village, County 

Armagh, Ireland 133 

Father Matthew 135 

Ross Castle, Killarney 136 

Monument to Daniel O'Connell 137 

Charles Stewart Parnei.i 138 

Birthplace of Thomas Mooke 139 

The Giant's Causeway 140 

Oliver Goldsmith 142 

Custom House, Dublin 143 

Edinburgh 144 

Home of Robert Burns 145 

Robert Burns 150 

James Watt discovering the. Power of Steam 151 

"Brigs o' Ayr" 152 

Sir Walter Scott 153 

Thomas Carlyle 154 

Sir William Wallace 157 

Royal Regalia of Scotland 158 

Mary Stuart receiving her Death-Sentence. 159 

St. Augustine, Florida 161 

Scene in Ce.vtral America 163 

Portrait of Pizarro 165 

South American Indians 168 

Popocatepetl 170 

Hidalgo y Costei.lo 172 

BENiTd Juarez, Ex-President of Mexico . . 174 

Cypress Trees at Chapuliepec 175 

The Inca Hauscar 176 

Bay of Rio de Janeiro 181 

Gallery of Dom Pedro 1 183 

Niagara of Brazil 187 

Tailpiece 188 

Harbor and City of Quebec 189 

Death of Montcalm 192 

The Thousand Islands 196 

Scene on the Eastern Coast of Canada . . 198 

The Capitol at Washington 200 

Plymouth Rock 202 

An Indian Attack 203 

Penn's Treaty with the Indians .... 205 

Patrick Henry 211 

Lexington ..... 212 

Declaration of Independence 215 

On the War-path . . . . ■ 217 

George Washington 219 

Mount Vernon 220 

The White House; Home of the Presidents 224 

John Adams 225 

Thomas Jefferson 226 

Jamfj; Madison 228 

James Monroe 229 

John Quincy Adams 230 

John C. Calhoun 231 

A Mormon Home 232 

Andrew Jackson 232 

3 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Daniel Webster 

Martin Van Buren 

General William H. Harrison . . 

John Tyler 

James K. Polk 

The Alamo, Mexico 

Zachary Taylor 

Millard Fillmore 

Franklin Pierce 

James Buchanan 

Abraham Lincoln 

ViCKSBURG 

John Ericsson 

Andrew Johnson 

Indian Chief 

General Grant 

Rutherford B. Hayes 

Samuel J. Tilden 

James A. Garfield 

Chester A. Arthur 

General Hancock 

Stephen Grover Cleveland . . . 
Giant Treks of California . . . 

Niagara Falls 

YosEMiTE Valley' 

Switzerland of America .... 

Point Chautauqua 

Tip-top House, Mount W.vshington 

AViLI.IAM CULLEN BrYANT .... 

Henry' Wadsworth Longfellow 
Birthplace of John Howard Payne 

Gr.\nd Canal, Venice 

School of Vestal Virgins .... 

Statue of Julius C/esar 

Interior of St. Peter's, Rome . . 
Raphaei 



Galileo 

Doge's Palace, Venice 

Destruction of Pompeii 

Pope Pius IX 

Guiseppe Garibaldi 

King Humbert IV 

Angoui.eme 

Marie Antoinette 

Napoleon's Residence at St. Helena . . . 

Tomb of Napoleon I 

Blucher's March to Wvif.rloo 

Porte St. Denis 

Column, Place VendSme, Paris 

CoMTE DE Paris 

General Boulvnger 

Roy'ai. Pal.ace, Madrid 

The Armada 

Sp.\nish Priest 

Bridge of Saragossa 

King Alfonso XII 

On the Coast of Norway' 

The Vikings 

Queen Margaret awaiting the .Attack of 

the Vitali 

Tycho Brahe 

Lake of Geneva 

Arnold von Winkelried at Sempach . . . 

John Calvin . 

Belfry of Bruges 

Street in Ghent 

Heidelberg Castle, from the Neckar . . . 

Street in Berlin 

Martin Luther 

Mayence 

First Printing-Press 

Copernicus 

John Kepler 

Cologne Cathedral 



234 
235 
236 
236 
237 
238 
239 
240 
241 
242 

243 
246 
246 
248 

249 
250 

251 

252 

2C2 

253 
255 
256 
256 

2.SS 

259 

260 

263 

264 

268 

273 
277 
2SI 

285 
287 

2S9 

290 

295 

296 

297 
298 
299 

306 

307 
308 

309 
310 

3>' 
312 

313 
314 
317 
319 
320 
322 
324 
325 

327 
3io 
331 
335 
336 
337 
33S 
340 
342 
344 
346 
.>47 
34S 
34S 
350 



Bismarck 351 

Von Moltke 353 

Crown Prince of Germany 356 

Street in Vienna 357 

Napoleon and Louise 359 

Beethoven 360 

Glacier 362 

Novgorod 364 

Peter the Great 366 

Catherine the Great of Russl\ 368 

Burning of Moscow 369 

Siege of Sebastopol 371 

Alexander II 372 

Reading Emancipation Proclamation .... 373 

Nihilist I'rinting-Office 374 

Crossing 'ihe Steppes 375 

Newsky Prospect 377 

Kremlin at Moscow 378 

Cathedral at St. Basil 379 

Odessa 380 

Archimandrite 381 

Russian Nuns begging Alms 381 

Russian Family 382 

Gold Mines, Siberia 383 

Siberian Dog-sledge . . ^ 384 

Constantinople 385 

Mosque 389 

Alexander I. of Bulgari.a 390 

Dervishes 391 

Circassian 394 

A Sultana's Room 395 

Remains of RuiNEo Temple at Corinth . . . 396 

Site of Troy 398 

Plato 402 

Aristotle 402 

King George 1 403 

View of Crete 404 

Acropolis at Athens 405 

Tail-piece 406 

The Pyramids 407 

Exterior of Temple of Isis 410 

Cairo 412 

Doi'M Palms 416 

Moses' Well 417 

Ferry of Kantara 418 

Egyptian Family 420 

A Street in Tunis 423 

Scenes in the Life of Dr. Livingstone . . . 426 

Christmas at an African Station 427 

Asiatic Types 429 

Birth of Christ 431 

Church of the Holy Sepulchre 433 

hillah, on the euphrates 435 

Avenue of Hindoo Temples 437 

Lucknow 440 

Bombay 441 

Hindoo Gods 443 

Hindoo Musician 445 

Hindoo Princess 447 

The sacred Altar of Heaven, Pekin .... 449 

Chinese Hanging-Garden 451 

Interior of a Chinese Temple 452 

Chinese Locomotion 454 

Chinese Family' 455 

Chinese Children 457 

Japanese Lady' 458 

Japanese Family 460 

Botanical Garden, Adelaide 462 

Ornithorhynchus 467 

Australian j68 

Lake Rothe-Mahana J70 

New Zealander 47' 

Dyaks of Borneo 474 

A Volcanic Cone 475 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction * 

ENGLAND. 
ENGLAND TO THE TIME OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
Extent and physical aspect of England — Picturesque scenery — Homes of the poels — Agriculture, manufactures, 
and commerce^National debt — Army and navy — Religion of ancient Britain — Druidical sacrifices — Boa- 
dicea and her struggle with the Romans — Early British tribes and races — The story of Casdmon — Clothing 
and domestic habits of the earlier inhabitants of Great Britain — Scandinavian inva>ion — Alfred the Great — 
St. Dunstan and the Devil — Torture of Queen Edgiva — The Danes and .\nglo-Saxons become one united 
people — King Cnut and " the pudding " — Godwin and his singular death ii 

FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TO THE REIGN OF THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 

Battle of Hastings and conquest of England — Norman law phrases in our American courts^Characteristic death 
of William the Conqueror — Assassination of William Rufiis — Battle at Trenchbray — Wreck of the "White 
Ship" — Robin Hood, Little John, and Friar Tuck — Modes of trial by ordeal — Murder of Thomas-a-Becket, 
and penance of Henry II. — Poisoning of the fair Rosamond — Richard Coeurde-Lion and his wars in Pales- 
tine — Saracenic terror of Richard — Romantic story associated with Richard's captivity in .Austria — " The 
devil is loose " — Magna Charta — Murder at midnight of .Arthur, heir to the throne of England — Eleanor of 
Castile sucking the poison from the wound of her husband — Roger Bacon and his great inventions and dis- 
coveries — His discovery of gunpowder — His persecution and imprisonment — The Welsh Bards — The first 
prince of Wales — Attempt to subjugate Scotland — Execution of Jews — Tournaments — Sports of the common 
people — Beheading of Gaveston — -Terrible death of Edward II. — English and Scottish border warfare — 
Battles of Cregy and Poictiers in France — The " Most Noble Order of the Garter" — Wickliffe and the Re- 
formation in England — Chaucer, "the Father of English Poetry" — Westminster .\bbey — Insurrection of 
Wat Tyler and Jack Straw — The Battle of Chevychase — Whittington and his cat 37 

FROM HENRY IV. TO THE EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 

Owen Glendower, Douglas, and Harry Hotspur — Battle of .\gincourt — Rebellion of Jack Cade — The "Wars 
of the Roses " — Margaret of Anjou and the robber — Warwick, the " King-maker " — Introduction of printing 
into England — Witchcraft and astrology — Death of Richard III. at the battle of Bosworth — Impostures of 
Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck — Battle of Flodden — Fall of Cardinal Wolsey — Tyrannical reign of 
Henry VIII. — " Bloody Mary " — Execution of Mary. Queen of Scots — Destruction of the Spanish Armada — 
Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh — Shakespeare and the golden age of English literature — Lord Bacon 
— The translation of the Scri])iures — The English Revolution under Cromwell, Hampden, Pym and others — 
Trial and execution of Charles I. .............. 7* 

FROM THE COMMONWEALTH TO THE PRESENT. 

The " Praise-God Barebones Parliament " — Milton and his poetry — The plague of London — Gre.at fire of Lon- 
don — The "Rye-house Plot" — Bunyan and the "Pilgrim's Progress" — Battle of the Boyne — Newton and 
his discoveries — A brilliant age of literature — Rise and development of Methodism — Defeat of Charles 
Edward at Culloden — Founding of the British Empire in India^Conquest of Canada — The new style of 
reckoning time introduced — Hogarth and his pictures — English comedy — Victories over France and Spain on 
sea and land — Great poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries — The steam-engine and other remarkable 
inventions and discoveries — English statesmanship and oratory — Catholic emancipation — Steam navigation — 
The Crystal Palace — Crimean war — Indian mutiny — The Zulu war and death of Prince Napoleon — The war 
in the Soudan and murder of General Gordon — Beaconsfield and Gladstone — Art, literature, science and 
philosophy in England at the present day . . . . . . . . . . • .96 

(5) 



€ CONTENTS. 

IRELAND. 

Similarity of the aspect of the country and the character of the people — English rule in Ireland — Humorous 
Legends — St. Patrick and " The King of the Serpents" — Agriculture and manufactures in Ireland — Wit and 
humor of the beggars — The jaunting-car — Father Matthew and his temperance campaign — The Blarney Stone 
— The Lakes of Kiilarney and their beautiful legends — Legends of other lakes — Daniel O'Connell and Catho- 
lic emancipation — Charles Stewart Parnell and the Irish Home Rule Party — Irish statesmen, patriots, and 
orators — The poetry of Thomas Moore — The Giant's Causeway — Belfast and Dublin — The primitive inhab- 
it.ints of Ireland — Irish civilization and scholarship at the period when other nations were sunk in darkness 
and barbarism — The great contributions of Ireland to English literature, science and art . . . .129 

SCOTLAND. 

A land ruggeQ,but free and independent — The vast ."-trides m.ade in one century from obscurity and poverty to a 
foremost place in the civilization of the world — Geographical aspect of Scotland — The Highland and Low- 
land races — Their " fierce native daring " in warfare — Rob Roy — Agriculture and manufactures in Scotland 
— Scottish fisheries — The national religion — Scottish universities — Great names in literature science and 
art — Picturesque and beautiful scenery — Epochs of Scottish history — Wallace and Bruce — Mary, Queen 01 
Scots — John Knox and the Scottish Reformatinn — Union of Scotland with England upon equal terms . . 144 

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 

A preliminary glance at the stupendous strides made eveiy day by the United States — All climates within its 
territory — Its vast resources — -Pre-Columbian discovery of America — Voyages of Columbus — Americus \'es- 
pucius — Search for the "Fountain of Youth" — The discovery of the Pacific ocean by Balboa — Invasion of 
Mexico by Cortez — Its conquest by Spain — Achievement of its independence — Capture of Mexico by the 
United States — Invasion of Mexico by the French, and the Austrian Prince Maximilian placed upon its throne 
— The Emperor Maximilian shot — Benito Juarez and Porfirio Diaz — Mexico de.'scribed— Pizarro and the con- 
quest of Peru — Wealth of ancient Peru — Peruvian war of independence under Bolivar — Peruvian silver mines 
— Railway traffic in Peru — Venezuela and her struggle for independence — Prosperous condition of Chili — 
The Argentine Confederation — Central America — The acquisition of Brazil by Portugal — Proclamation of 
independence — Extent, mineral wealth, and agricultur.d resources of Brazil — People of Brazil — The literary 
and scientific attainments of its ])resent emperor ............ 161 

CANADA. 

Discoveries of John and Sebastian Cabot — Jacques Cartier sails into and gives name to the " Gulf of St. Law- 
rence " — Founding of Quebec — Aboriginal inhabitants of Canada — The capture of Quebec and deaths of Gen- 
eral Wolfe and the Martinis de Montcalm — Invasion of Canada and capitulation of General Hull — The fair 
dealing of the Dominion of Canada with her Indians — Louis Kiel's rebellion — Murder of Scott — The Red 
River expedition under Sir Garnet Wolseley — The governmental constitution of Canada — Extent of territory 
— Progress in agriculture — Canadian fisheries — Navigation and railway travel — Vast resources of British 
Columbia 1S9 

THE UNITED STATES. 

THE UNITED STATES TO THE PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION. 

Settlement of the United States — John Smith and Pocahontas— Settlement of Maryland — The Pilgrims' voyage 
in the Mayflower — Colonization of New England — Penn's treaty with the Indians — James Oglethorpe and the 
settlement of Georgia 200 

FROM THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION TO THE DEATH OF WASHINGTON. 

Ignorance and folly of the English Government — The " Stamp Act " and its repeal — The tax on tea — Destruc- 
tion of tea in Boston harbor — Eloquence of Patrick Henry — War declared between England and the Colonies 
— Lexington and Bunker Hill— Battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Bennington — Suirender of Burgoyne at Sar- 
atoga — Massacre in the valley of Wyoming — Treason of Arnold and execution of Major Andre — The siege 
of Yorktown — Surrender of Cornwallis — Treaty of peace between the English and United States — Life, char- 
acter and appearance of George Washington — His death .......... 208 



CONTENTS. 7 

LITERATURE AND GENERAL PROGRESS IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD. 

First book written in America — Poetry, science and philosophy of Colonial authors — Jonathan Edwards — Ben- 
jamin Franklin, his writings, inventions and discoveries — The " Greatest Natural Botanist in the World " . 221 

THE THIRTEEN STATES A NATION— ITS HISTORY TO THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 

Convention at Philadelphia — Ability and energy of Alexander Hamilton — Duel between Hamilton and Aaron 
Burr — Hamilton's successful financial measures — Death of Washington — Adams' administration— Jefferson's 
achninistration — Trial of Aaron Burr for treason — Fulton's invention of the steamboat — War of 1812 — The 
" Monroe Doctrine" — Visit of Marquis Lafayette — Eloquence ot Henry Clay — Statesmanship of John C. Cal- 
houn — Joseph Smith and the religion of the Mormons — Andrew Jackson's administration — His civil and mil- 
itary career — Daniel Webster and Robert Hayne — Panic of 1837 — Invention of the telegraph by Morse — 
War declared against Mexico ............... 222 

FROM THE MEXICAN WAR TO THE PRESENT DAY. 

Generals Taylor and Scott invade Mexico — Battle of Buena Vista — Capture of Mexico by General Winfield 
Scott — Zachary Taylor's victories — The Missouri Compromise — Stephen A. Douglas, " The Little Giant " — 
Election of Abraham Lincoln and outbreak of the Civil war — Defeat of the Southern Confederacy and sur- 
render of General Lee to General Grant — Assassination of Abraham Lincoln — Reference to the sea-fight 
between the Monitor and Merriniac — Inventions of John Ericsson — Great fire in Chicago — Fire in Boston — 
Battle between General Custer and Sioux Indians — Death of Custer — Political contest between R. B. Hayes, 
and S. J. Tilden — Assassination of President Garfield — Death of General Hancock — Career of Stephen Grover 
Cleveland ................... 236 

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA. 

Mountain systems of the United States — Giant trees of California — Falls of Niagara — The Yosemite Falls — The 
Switzerland of America — The " .Switch-Back " railroad — Chautauqua — Mount Washington — -United States 
Signal Service— Weather indications and cautionary signals .......... 255 

LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. 

Drake — Halleck — Bryant — Longfellow — Holmes, with extracts from his poetry — Poetry of Whittier — Sad life 
and death of Edgar Allan Poe — John Howard Payne, his dramatic works — Verses of " Home, Sweet Home " 
usually omitted — -Remains of P.iyne brought from Africa to the United States — Living poets — Prose authors 
— Novelists — Histori.ans and essayists — Progress in engraving and book-illustration — Chromolithography — 
American painters and sculptors — Musical compositions — American inventive talent ..... 262 

ITALY. 

ROME. 

Climate and physical aspect of Italy — Its wealth in art — Great achievements of the Italian people — Romulus 
and kemus and the she-wolf— The rape of the Sabines — The Horatii and the Curiatii — The rape of Lucretia 
and banishment of the Tarquins — Three Romans keep at bay a hostile army — War between Rome and Car- 
thage — Stupendous victories gained by Hannibal over the Romans — Hannibal's defeat and death — Destruction 
of Carth.ige — Marius and Sulla — Caius Julius Cissar, and anecdotes concerning him— His victories and re- 
forms initiated by him — Assa.ssination of Csesn- — Reign of Augustus, and golden age of Roman literature — 
Destruction of Jerusalem — Persecution of Christians and burning of Rome under Nero— Roman Catacombs 
— Career of Rienzi — The Colosseum — St. Peter's and the Vatican — Italian art — Michael Angelo and 
Raphael 273 

PROMINENT CITIES OF ITALY. 

Beauty of Florence — Dante and his " Divine Comedy " — (Jreat men born in Florence — Its magnificent monu- 
ments and works of art— The city of Venice — Terrible government of the " Council of Ten " — The Bridge of 
Sighs — Grand Canal of Venice — Padua — Verona and the great men born there — It manufactures and agricul- 
tural products — Interesting aspect of Milan — Magnificent cathedral in Milan — Beautiful situation of Naples — 
Life in Naples — Rmins of Pompeii and Herculaneum — A united Italy — Cavour, Mazzini and Garibaldi — 
Pope Pius IX. — Garibaldi's life in New York — Present government of Italy — Attempted assassination of King 
Humbert 288 



8 CONTENTS. 

FRANCE. 

FRANCE FROM ITS EARLIEST HISTORY TO THE REVOLUTION. 

Primitive inhabitants of France — MerovingLan cliiefs — Clovis, and founding of the P'rench monarchy — Reign of 
Charlemagne — The Capet dynasty — The Crusades — Peter the Hermit — Capture of Jerusalem by Godfrey of 
Bouillon — .Second crusade — Noble conduct of the Sultan Saladin — The Boy Crusade — Life in the middle ages 
— Tournaments — The Chevalier Bayard — Romantic literature — Richelieu, Mazarin, and Colbert — Rabelais 
and his humorous romances — Essays of Montaigne — Wits and literary men of France — Disgraceful reign of 
Louis XV. — Debauchery of the Court of France — Sufferings of the French people ..... 299 

THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. 

Starvation amongst the French people — Storming of the Bastile — Insurrection of women — Mrrabeau — Fliglii "f 
Louis XIV. — " The M.irseillaise " war-hymn — Trial and execution of King Louis — The assassination of M.irat 
by Charlotte Corday — Tlie " Reign of Terror " — Notable executions — The *' Goddess of Reason " . . 304 

FRANCE FROM THE OPENING OF THE CAREER OF NAPOLEON. 

Character of Napoleon Bonaparte — Characteristic anecdotes — Personal appearance of Napoleon — His banish- 
ment and death at St. Helena — French Revolution of 184S, and flight of Louis Phillippe — French Republic 
nd Empire under Louis Napoleon — Defeat of the Austrians by the F'rench under Napoleon III. — The 
Franco-German war — Destruction of the Vendome Column by the Communisls — Magnificence of Paris — lis 
marvels of architecture — Museums, galleries and theatres — Present claimants to the throne of France — Gen- 
eral Boulanger — French greatness in literature, science and art — France, the vineyard of the earth . . 306 

SPAIN. 

Geographical .aspect of Spain — E»rliest inhabitants of Spain — Serlorius and his lame fawn — Defeat of Roderic, 
" Last of the Goths " — Chronicle of the " Cid " — Defeat of the Moors by the Cid, after his death — Splendor 
of Granada — PaLice of the Alhambra — Siege of Granada — "The Last Sigh of the Moor" — The Spanish 
Armada — Literature and art of .Spain — Circumsiances under which Cervantes wrote " Don Quixote " — Anec- 
dote of Murillo — Anecdote of Marshal .Soult — Madrid — Bull-fighting — Description of Seville and Valencia — 
The Virgin Mary and her portrait— Singular story concerning St. Vincent — Saragossa and its sieges — The 
maid of Saragossa — Revolution in Spain — Assassination of General Prim — Spain a republic — Alfonso 
becomes king — .Spanish love for shows, games and festivals — Passion for dancing — Love of fighting — 
Various traits of the Spanish people 3 14 

PORTUGAL. 

Extent, climate, and resources of Portugal — Lisbon and its subjection to earthquakes — Camoens and his great 
poem, " The Lusiad" — Grotto of Camoens in China — Industry and commerce of the Portuguese . . . 323 

DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN, 

The Scandinavian sea-kings — Charlemagne and the Norsemen — Mythology and war-songs of the Vikings — 
Norse settlements in England and France — Margaret, the " Semiramis of the North" — Victories of Gustavus 
Adolphus — The battle of Lutzen and dtath of Gustavus Adolphu.s — Career of Charles XII. of Sweden — 
Union of Norway and Sweden — Character of the Danes — Danish literature, art and science — Character of 
the Norwegians and the Swedes — Recreations and amusements ......... 324 

SWITZERLAND. 

Early races of Switzerland — The House of Hapsburg — The vow of the Swiss patriots — Death of Gessler by 
William Tell — -The battle of Mortgarten — The Swiss Confederation — Battle of Senipach and heroic conduct 
of Arnold von Winkelried — Victory at Nefels and achievement of independence by the Swiss — The Senipach 
convention — Production and commerce — Exports of Geneva — Alpine ascents — Chamouni, Mont Blanc, and 
Lake of Geneva — Imprisonment of Bonnivard in the Castle of Chillon — Intellectual achievements of the 
Swiss " 53^ 

THE NETHERLANDS. 

Religion of Holland and Belgium — City of Brussels — Character of the Belgians — Scenery of Holland — Dutcli 
ancestry — Cleanliness — Legend of the F'lying Dutchman 337 



CONTENTS. 9 

GERMANY. 

United German Empire — House of HohenioUern — Thirly Years' war — Peace of Westphalia — The Seven Years' 

war Frederick the Great— Legends of the Rhine — Nibelungenlied — Life in Berlin— Luther and Melanc- 

thon— Luther throws the inkstand at the devil — Beautiful legend of St. Elizabeth — Anecdotes of Augustus IL 
-Dresden and Mayence — Invention of printing — Art, science and literature of Germany — Cologne cathedral 

St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins — Franco-German war — Shrewdness and foresight ofthe Emperor 

William — Statesmanship of Bismarck — Generalship of Von Moltke — Surrender of the Emperor Napoleon lU. 

Proclamation of the German Empire in Versailles — Anecdote of Emperor William 340 

AUSTRIA. 

Area of Austria — Government and population of Austria — Defeat of the Turks under the walls of Vienna^ 
Music and musicians — Palace of Schonbrunn — Bavaria — Bohemia — Curious relics in the cathedral of St. Vitus 
in Prague — Loretta chapel in Prague — Tyrol and the Tyrolese 357 

RUSSIA. 

Early history of Russia — Defeat of Peter the Great by Charles XIL of Sweden — Habits of Peter the Great — 

Palace of ice Catherine the Great — Defeat of Kosciusko and ruin of Poland — French retreat from Moscow 

War in the Crimea — Death ofthe Emperor Nicholas — Emancipation of the Serfs — Assassination of Alex- 
ander H.— The Nihilists — Alexander HL — Conquests of Russia in Central Asia — St. Petersburg — Moscow — 
The Kremlin Novgorod — Religion of the Russians — Russian superstitions — Siberia — Siberian lack of hos- 
pitality 364 

TURKEY. 

Geographical position and population of Turkey — The Mahometan religion — Turkish history — Defeat of Bajazet 
by Tamerlane — Siege of Constantinople— Massacre of the Janizaries — War with Russia — Dancing Dervishes 
— Turkish shopkeepers — Women in Turkey — Legend of the Maiden's Tower 385 

GREECE. 

Remarkable physical features, clim.ite and history of Greece — Supreme quality of its literature, philosophy, 
science and art — Lycurgus, Draco and Solon — Marathon — Thermopylae — Plague at Athens — Epaminondas 

Philip of Macedon — Defeat of Porus by Alexander the Great — Philosophers of Greece — Greek oratory and 

the drama — Modern hi.story — Ruins of ancient cities and temples— Religion of the Greeks .... 396 

EGYPT. 

Early civilization of Egypt — Overflowing of the Nile — Pyramids and the Sphinx — Superstitions of the Egyptians 
— Rameses the Great — Statue of Memnon — Conquest of Egypt by Cambyses — Antony and Cleopatra — Invasion 
of Egypt by Napoleon — Assassination of General Kleber — Defeat of the French at Aboukir — Life in Cairo — 
Ruins of Egyptian temples and statues — Ruins of Thebes — Moses' Well — The Suez canal— Religion of an- 
cient Egypt — Remarkable discovery of Mummies — The Soudan — Arabs ofthe Soudan — "Chinese Gordon" 
— Suakin 407 

THE BARBARY STATES. 

Morocco and the Moors — American resistance to slave-trading — Attack upon Tripoli by Commodore Preble — 
Capture of Algerine vessels by Commodore Decatur — -Attack upon Algiers by an English fleet — Defeat of 
Abdel Kader by the French 422 

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. 

Desert of Sahara — Wild animals of Africa — African Pigmies — Source of the Nile — The Congo and the Zambesi 
— African explorers and exploration — Livingstone's propositions in regard to Africa ..... 424 

SYRIA AND PALESTINE. 

Syria and Palestine — The " Holy Places" — The Holy Sepulchre — Strange people in Jerusalem — Antioch and 
Damascus — Ruins of Tadmor— Ruins of Baalbec — Tyre and Sidon — Siege of Acre — Arabia and the Arabs — 
Nineveh — Hanging-gardens of Babylon — Fall of Babylon — Climate of Persia 429 

INDIA. 

Hindoo chronology — Hindoo literature — Invasion of India by Alexander the Great — British Empire in India — 
"Black Hole" of Calcutta — Lord Clive — Warren Hastings — Sepoy rebellion — Massacre at Cawnpore — 



10 CONTENTS. 

Storming of Delhi — Generals Havelock, Outram, and Sir Colin Campbell — Fall of the Mogul Empire 
Physical geography of India — Hindoo architecture — Great cities of India — The Ganges — Hindoo Mythology 
— luggernaut — The Thugs — Nautch or dancing girls — The Vale of Cashmere — Immolation of widows — Cash- 
merian character and language 437 

CHINA. 

Vast population of China — Great Wall of China — Invasion of China by Kubla Khan — Terrible earthquake in 
China War between Great Britain and China — Humorous story of the American Minister to China — Insur- 
rection in China — Chinese artificial lakes and hanging-gardens — Weird legends — Life in China — Chinese 
advertisements — Superstitions — Chinese locomotion — Dwarfing of the feet by females — Chinese government — 
Chinese in California 449 

JAPAN. 

P.tligion, manners and customs of the Japanese — United States treaty with Japan — The Tycoon and Mikado — 
Japanese love of Nature — Religion and mythology of the Japanese — Mechanical and artistic work — Physical 
features of the Japanese — Domestic habits of the Japanese — Female fashions — Modern civilization . . 458 

AUSTRALIA. 

Geographical position and history of Australia — Colonization of Australia — Van Piemen's Land — The Yarra- 
varra — Sydney and Melbourne — New South Wales and Tasmania — The first Australian newspaper — Dis- 
covery of gold at Ballarat — Australian gold-diggings — Burke and Wills cross the Australian continent — 
Markets in Melbourne — ".Paddy's Market " — "Sold again and got the sugar" — Chinese immigrants — Re- 
sources of Australia — Aboriginal inhabitants 462 

NEW ZEALAND, POLYNESIA, AND THE MALAYSIAN 

I SLAN DS. 

Islands of New Zealand — Lake Rothe-Mahana — The Maoris — Grndual extinction of the Maoris — Sandwich 
islands — Decrease in their population — Society islands — Manners of the natives of Olaheite — Fertility of 
Java — Valley of poison — Upas tree — Character of the Malays . 470 




ENGLAND. 



'• O England, model to thy inward greatness, 
Like little body with a mighty heart." 

'UCH are the seemingly boastful words with which Shakespeare 
apostrophizes his native land. We say "seemingly boast- 
ful," for if ever any race had just cause to be proud of its 
record it is that noble race — Kelt, Anglo-Saxon, Dane, and 
Norman, blended and combined — which has given its " mighty 
heart " to this litde realm of England, and which, as constitut- 
ing the groundwork of that type of humanity now developing 
^^ in our own country, is destined to carry America — mighty 

body harmonizing with mighty heart — to a point of eminence not hitherto 

reached by any nation. 

Cll) 




12 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

England is, in extent, the smallest oF all the great powers of Europe ; yet 
in reo-ard of territories and population dependent on her, as well as of manu- 
factures, commerce, and wealth, she is far ahead of any of them. The area of 
Encrland and Wales is 58,310 square miles, a little larger than the State of 
Illinois, yet her colonies and dependences extend into every clime of the 
world, while the roll-call of her drums beating reveille for her soldiers follows 
the sun throuijh all the twenty-four hours of its daily course. Queen Victoria 
at this moment rules over one-seventh of the earth's surface and nearly one- 
fourth of its population, swaying the sceptre over a territory seventy times the 
extent of Great Britain and Ireland, and embracing a population of between 
three and four hundred millions of human beings. The white sails of her 
fleets gleam on every sea; her manufactures find their way into every land; 
while her Chaucer, her Shakespeare, her Bacon, and Newton, and Milton 
speak to the cultured intellects of all the world. 

England constitutes the southern portion of the island of Great Britain, 
lying between 50° and 56° north latitude and 1° 46' east longitude and 5° 
45' west. Its extreme length is 365 miles, and breadth 280. The total popu- 
lation is over 26,000,000. 

England is a beautifully diversified, generally undulating country. Her 
mountains lie in four distinct groups — the Pennine range, stretching from the 
Cheviot hills on the Scotch border to the heart of England and forming a kind 
of back-bone to the country; the Cumbrian group in Cumberland and West- 
moreland; the Welsh mountains; and the Highlands of Devon and Cornwall. 
The loftiest peak in England is Snowdon in the Welsh group, 3,570 feet above 
sea-level. Her hill and mountain ranges are generally separated from each 
other by rich and smiling valleys, each watered by its own stream, which not 
only lends life and beauty to the scene, but, in most cases, is utilized for some 
of the manifold purposes of industry. There are many fine tracts of uplands, 
mainly on the eastern slope or versant of the country. Generally these are 
productive, the north and south downs in Surrey, Kent, and Hampshire being 
especially remarkable for their fine breed of sheep. The York uplands, on 
the other hand, are bleak and solitary moors, almost destitute of verdure and 
foliage. A large proportion of England consists of extensive stretches of 
comparatively level land. One of the most fertile of these tracts is in the 
eastern and southeastern counties, comprising Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and 
Kent, noted for the splendid results attained by their scientific agriculturists. 
The largest level plain in England has an area of 1,300 miles, and is known 
as the Fenland — a district of low, marshy soil, traversed by canals and rivers 
well-nigh as sluggish. This marsh country has been much reduced within the 
memory of man by scientific draining. 

Owing to the amount of rainfall and the undulating character of the ground 
no country has a more complete river-system than England, the greater rivers 



ENGLAND. 



13 



forming harbors and water-ways leading into the very heart of the kingdom. 
On the bosom of these short, but often broad and deep rivers, especially on the 
Thames, the Mersey, the Tyne, the Humber, and the Severn, float argosies 
more numerous and more richly-laden than sail on the surface of any 




CATHEDRAL OF YORK. 



Other streams in the world. In addition to the rivers and their estuaries 
England enjoys many excellent natural harbors, formed by the indentations 
of its coast; the sea-line, by reason of its undulations, reaching a length 
of 2,000 miles. 

No town in England is more than 1 20 miles from the sea, and almost every 



14 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



one of the important inland towns not reached by river water-ways is on a 
canal. Commencing from the northeast we shall enumerate the rivers, with the 
principal towns on them : The Tyne — Newcastle (capital of coal-district, large 
port), also Gateshead and South .Shields (ship-building) at its mouth ; the Wea7- 
— Sunderland (seaport, ship-building), farther up the river — Durham (fine ca- 
thedral). Two rivers, the Onse and the 
Trent, unite to form the Hmiiber — 
Hull (large port). The Ojtse is formed 
of a congeries of small Yorkshire 
streams on whose banks stand many 
busy towns, notably Leeds (woollen) 
on the Aire, and Sheffield (cutlery) on 
the Don. Where the Ouse first be- 
comes navigable stands York (seat of 
an archbishop, wath noble cathedral) ; 
on the Tretit is Nottingham (lace and 
hosiery). South of the Hiiinber is the 
Yare — Yarmouth (seaport), and farther 
south is the Thames — London (capital 
of England, greatest seaport in the 
world) and Windsor (royal castle) . On 
the south coast the streams are small, 
but several important towns lie near their mouths or on bays, as Dover (town 
nearest France), Brighton (royal marine palace, fashionable watering-place), 
Portsmouth (principal naval station) ; on the Itchen — Southampton (famous 
port for ocean-going steamers) and Winchester (Anglo-Saxon capital, and 
cathedral) ; on the Exe — Exeter (cathedral) ; on the Tamar — Plymouth and 
Davenport (naval stations). On the estuary of the Fal or Vale, in Cornwall, 
and close to the Land's End, is Falmouth, with one of the best harbors in the 
kingdom, a chief rendezvous for fleets and mail-packets. Of this river and 
harbor the quaint old poet Drayton says : 

" Here Vale, a lively flood, her nobler name that gives 
To Falmouth, and by whom it famous ever lives, 
Whose entrance is from sea so intricately wound; . 

Her haven angled so about her barbarous sound. 
That in her quiet bay a hundred ships may ride, 
Yet not the tallest mast be of the tall'st descried." 




WYCL-IFFE. 



Turning up the west coast we come to the Severn, the largest river in 
England, on which stands Cardiff, largest town in Wales, the capital of South 
Wales coal-district ; also the cities of Gloucester, Worcester, and Shrews- 
bury, all with cathedrals. The Severn has two tributaries, bearing the name 



ENGLAND. 15 

of Avon, both famous. The Lower Avon is famed as having received the 
dust of Wickhffe, when his bones were dug up and cast into the stream : 

" The Avon to the Severn runs, the Severn to the sea, 
And Wickliffe's dust shall spread abroad, wide as thy waters be." 

On it stand Bath (fashionable watering-place, hot springs), and Bristol, a 
large, busy town and harbor. 

Still more famed is the Upper Avon, for upon it stands the town of Strat- 
ford, the birthplace of the immortal Shakespeare. Beautifully has it been 
sung by an anonymous poet, quoted by our own Longfellow : 

" Flow on, sweet river ! like his verse 
Who lies beneath this marble hearse. 
Thy playmate once ; — I see him now 
A boy with sunshine on his brow, 
And hear in Stratford's quiet street 
The patter of his little feet. 

" I see him by thy shallow edge 
Wading knee-deep amid the sedge ; 
And lost in thought, as if thy stream 
Were the swift river of a dream. 

" He wonders whitherward it flows ; 
And fain would follow where it goes, 
To the wide world, that shall ere long 
Be filled with his melodious song. 

" Flow on, fair stream ! That dream is o'er. 
He stands upon another shore ; 
A vaster river near him flows. 
And still he follows where it goes." 

The Wye, another tributary of the Severn, is the most picturesque of the 
many crystal streams of Wales, vying In beauty with the English Dove. 
Beautifully does the poet, Charles Cotton, apostrophize the latter silver river: 

" O my beloved nymph ! fair Dove ! 
Princess of rivers ! how I love 

Upon thy flowery banks to lie. 
And view thy silver stream 
When gilded by a summer beam ! . . . 
Such streams Rome's yellow Tiber cannot show 
The Iberian Tagus or Ligurian Po. . . . 
Nay, Thame and Isis when conjoined submit 
And lay their trophies at thy silver feet." 



16 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



The Eden, one of England's fairest streams, flows close to the Scottish 

border : 

" Eden ! till now thy beauty had I viewed 
By glimpses only. Nature gives thee flowers 
That have no rival among British bowers, 
And thy bold rocks are worthy of their fame." 




WESTMINSTER. 



On this stream, which Wordsworth celebrates in the above lines, stands 
the ancient city of Carlisle with its castle and cathedral. In the old days of 
the border wars between the English and Scots, Carlisle was the capital of the 
English side, and many a stirring tale, tradition, and ballad still commemorate 
these days of " sturt and strife." It was there the Scottish prisoners were 
imprisoned, and, in these iron times, too frequendy " done to death." In 
particular many of the unfortunate Jacobites that followed "Prince Charlie" 
were executed here, and their heads set up on iron spikes over the city gates. 

Other towns of note in England are Birmingham (centre of England; 
hardware manufacture) ; Bradford and Huddersfield, in Yorkshire (woollen 



ENGLAND. 17 

factories), and Stafford, capital of Staffordshire, or the Black country as it is 
called from its numerous coal and iron works. 

But the most romantic and beautiful region in England proper is the lake 
district of Cumberland and Westmoreland. The lakes lie in lonsr, narrow 
valleys or dales among the vast mountains which constitute the Cumbrian 
group and render this region so grandly sublime. Helvellyn, the centre of 
the group, attains a height of 3,000 feet. Of these beautiful expanses of 
water we specify only a few of the most famed — Windermere, Ulleswater, 
Derwentwater, Wastwater, Coniston, and the lovely Grasmere, on whose banks 
stands Rydal Cottage, the home of the poet Wordsworth. As the chosen 
home of the poets of the lake school — Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Wilson 
— no region has been so celebrated in song and poetry as this witchingly 
charming lake district. It would be easy to fill a volume with tributes to its 
charms. Space limits us, and we content ourselves with quoting the hymns 
of praise of two of the favorite "sweet singers" of England — Felicia Hemans 
and Robert Southey. It is thus that Mrs. Hemans sings of lovely, tranquil 
Grasmere : 

" O vale and lake, within your mountain urn 
Smiling so tranquilly, and yet so deep! 
Oft doth your dreamy loveliness return. 
Coloring the tender shadows of my sleep 
With light Elysian ; for the hues that steep 
Your shores in melting lustre seem to float 
On golden clouds from spirit-lands remote. 
Isles of the blest and in our memory keep 
Their place with holiest harmonies. Fair scene 
Most loved by evening and her dewy star ! 
O ne'er may man, with touch unhallowed, jar 
The perfect music of thy charm serene ! 
Still, still unclianged, may one sweet region wear 
Smiles that subdue the soul to love, and tears, and prayer." 

The principal towns in the lake district are Kendal and Keswick. We 
transcribe Southey's description of the view from his window in the latter 
town. The time is that "sober hour" when twilight spreads its mantle o'er 
the scene : 

" Pensive, tliough not in thought, I stood at the window, beiiolding 
Mountain, and lake, and vale; the valley disrobed of its verdure; 
Derwent retaining yet from eve a glassy reflexion, 
Where his expanded breast, then still and smooth as a mirror, 
Under the woods reposed : the hills that, calm and majestic. 
Lifted their heads in the silent sky, from far Glaramara, 
Bleacray and Maidenmour, to Grizedale and Western Withop 



18 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Dark and distinct they rose. . . . 

In the West beyond was the last pale tint of the twilight, 

Green as the stream in the glen with its pure and chrysolite waters. . . . 

Earth was hushed and still ; all motion and sound were suspended. . . . 

Only the voice of the Greta, heard only when all is in stillness. 

Pensive I stood and still : the hour and the scene had subdued me." 

Wales is no less distinguished for its wild and picturesque scenery — tiiei 
romantic beauty of its glens and hill-gorges, the profusion of its lonely lakelets 
and tarns, and of crystal streams meandering like silver threads among its 
mountain masses. It is thus that the poet addresses its sheltered and lovely 
Clwd, a river in North Wales, giving us, at the same time, a fine sketch of the 
scenery through which it flows : 

" O Cambrian river, with slow music gliding 

By pastoral hills, old woods, and ruined towers; 

Now midst thy reeds and golden willows hiding; 
Now gleaming forth by some rich bank of flowers. 

Thou smooth stream 

Art winding still thy sunny meads along, 

Murmuring to cottage and grey hills thy song, 

Low, sweet, unchanged. 

What is likely to strike a stranger seeing England for the first time is its 
garden-like appearance — the almost total absence of brush and stronger weeds, 
the trim aspect of its fields and fences, the neady dressed and cleanly-kept 
hedgerows of fragrant hawthorn, and the evident care that no nook shall 
escape cultivation. The density of the population demands that every rood 
of land be cultivated, while the tenant-farmer paying from ^6 to ^20 or 5^25 
an acre of yearly rent cannot afford to let any of it lie unproductive. The 
magnificent mansions of its peers and other proprietors, embosomed amid 
the foliage of stately trees and surrounded by lawns of velvety smoothness, 
form a striking feature in the landscape ; while the cozy, home-like dwellings 
of its farmers give an impression of competence and comfort ; some of these 
brick structures, interlaced with strong wooden beams, have a peculiarly pic- 
turesque appearance. Any one who saw the English house in the Centennial 
grounds, Philadelphia, has a good idea of the homes of the minor squires and 
better class of farmers — that is,jOf the yeomen of England. 

The principal cereal crops are wheat, barley, and oats. Of wheat large 
breadths are raised, the average yield being 30 to 35 or 40 bushels per acre. 
Oats are grown mainly for horses, barley for distilling. Notwithstanding the 
large yields won by her farmers, England cannot feed all her people, and has 
to import largely from this and other conntries. She cannot even supply her 
children with the " roast beef of old England," and again the United States, 




SUMMER SCENE IN ENGLAND. 



(19) 



20 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Ireland, Scotland, etc., make up the deficiency. Much of the land of England 
is devoted to grazing, and dairy-farming is an important industry. For 
this industry her moist and mild climate is especially favorable, nourishing 
her pastures to a degree of fertility surpassed only by that of "The Emerald 
Isle." 

The soil of the United Kingdom is in fewer hands than that of any 
country in the world, little over a quarter of a million proprietors own- 
ing 33,000,000 acres, or all the available land in England and Wales. Little 
more than 10,000 persons own over two-thirds of the country, while the 
twelve largest proprietors — all peers — own over a thirtieth. A million and a 
half of people are engaged in agriculture. 

The condition of the yeomen of England used to be very enviable. An 
ancient rhyme expresses the contempt with which they looked down on the 
people of other lands : 

"A noble of Spain, a county of France, 
And a knight of the North Countrie, 
A yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, 
Would buy them out all three." 

This rhyme begins to lose its force. The free importation of foreign produce 
has reduced the incomes of proprietors and farmers, so that the problem of 
the land has come to the front as one of the burning questions of the day. 
While the English yeoman was thus enviably situated it was far otherwise with 
his laborers. Poorly housed, poorly fed, poorly clad, poorly educated, their 
lot was hard and cheerless. Takinof England all over, and allovvingf for loss 
by broken time, two and a half dollars a week, without board, is the average 
wage of the out-door laborer. But the little bird that whispered to Byron 
that " by-and-by the people would be stronger" was prescient of the future. 
The condition of the Eni-lish ag-ricultural laborer is on the eve of becoming- 
the leading political problem which statesmen will have to face. The doctrine 
that the land is for the sole benefit of the few is fast becoming obsolete. The 
franchise is now conferred on poor as well as on rich, and the people are 
awakening to a sense of their rights and their power. 

The fisheries are of great importance, yielding an annual product of 
$50,000,000, and employing 37,000 boats and 200,000 hands. The herring 
fishery takes the first place, but the salmon, mackerel, and oyster fisheries 
are also of great value. English statesmen look to the fisheries as the grand 
nursery for the navy. 

But it is to her coal and iron that England is mainly indebted for her 
manufacturing supremacy. Her coal-fields are of large extent, and comprise 
extensive beds of bituminous coal from 30 to 40 feet thick. The principal 
deposits are in Northumberland and Durham, with New Castle as a centre; 



ENGLAND. 21 - 

in Staffordshire ; and in Glamorganshire, South Wales, around Cardiff. In 
all, England has some 4,000 collieries. In 1883 17,000,000 tons of ore 
were extracted from her iron mines, while her puddling furnaces produced 
two and one-third million tons of manufactured iron. Nearly 600,000 persons 
are employed in mining, of whom 450,000 are under ground. 

England's textile manufactures employ a yet larger number of hands. In 
all, in 1881, there were 6,189 factories, employing ']']'],']OZ actual operatives, 
representing 2,000,000 of persons dependent on this industry. Of these 
2,579 were cotton factories, 1,412 woollen, and 630 worsted. Other textile 
factories are of flax, hemp, jute, silk, and hosiery. Her iron manufactories 
employ several hundred thousand hands, Birmingham and Sheffield being the 
great centres for the manufacture of hardware, agricultural implements, and 
cudery. 

In a great marine nation ship-building holds an important place. In 1883 
there were built in Britain 365 sailing vessels and 806 steamers with a gross 
tonnage of 800,000. The principal yards are on the Clyde (Scodand), the 
Tyne, the Tees, the Mersey, and the Thames. 

England is under a monarchy, limited by a Parliament consisting of tw-o 
Houses — Lords and Commons. The sovereign has now little real influence, 
all power tending more and more to centre in the House of Commons, which 
is elected by nearly universal suffrage, and consists of 670 members. The 
House of Lords is a hereditary chamber, excepting that the two archbishops 
and twenty-four of the bishops have seats in virtue of their office. The heredi- 
tary peers number 402. The constitution of this chamber is now agitating 
the public mind, the more radical politicians advocating its abolition, the more 
moderate its reformation. The premier of the Cabinet is the most powerful man 
in Britain. Nominally he is selected by the sovereign ; in reality he is the man 
recognized as the head of the party having the majority in the House of Com- 
mons. The Cabinet resigns whenever an important measure introduced by 
it is rejected by the Commons, and a dissolution of Parliament ensues. The 
nominal duration of each Parliament is seven years; the average duration is 
about four. The electoral districts are not absolutely equal numerically. 
Somewhat over 40,000 is the average population of a district. All the mem- 
bers of the Cabinet have seats in Parliament. 

The chief universities of England are those of Oxford and Cambridge. In 
them the students live in colleges or halls, and their education is conducted 
principally by tutors, progress being tested by examinations. There are also 
university professors who lecture to all students. These colleges were 
founded at different periods from the thirteenth down to the eighteenth cen- 
tury ; and many of them are very fine structures, as is evidenced by the 
engraving of St. John's College, Oxford, shown at beginning of this chapter. 
In Oxford there are, in all, twenty-four colleges ; in Cambridge, seventeen. 



22 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Their endowments are large, those of the Oxford colleges for the year 1871 
amounting to $2,065,000; those of Cambridge to 1^1,700,000. The students 
•number about 5,000, and the clergy of the Established Church are largely 
trained at one or other of the universities. The towns themselves possess 
little independent importance. Besides these two universities, there are also 
those of London and Durham, where the teaching is more professorial. 

Episcopacy is the established religion of England. The Archbishop of 
Canterbury is Primate of all England, the Archbishop of York being the next 
dignitary. There are in all thirty bishops. The question of maintaining a state 
church is now being much agitated, and from the progress that democratic 
ideas are making in England, there seems no reason to doubt that per- 
sons now living will see a dissolution of the union of Church and State. In 
England the Established Church still ministers to a majority — probably two- 
thirds — of the people. Next to it the Wesleyan Methodist Church has the 
most adherents, closely followed by the Baptists. In Wales the Methodists 
are in the majority, and in 1886 a bill was submitted to Parliament asking it to 
disendow and disestablish the English Church in that principality. Though 
rejected by a small majority, it will be offered again. 

The national debt of England amounts (in 1886) to ;^3, 78 2,000,000, and it 
has been proposed to increase it by $750,000,000 for the expropriation of Irish 
landlords. The annual income is $445,000,000. Of this nearly a third is 
required to pay the interest of the debt, and over a third for the army and 
navy. 

The British army consists of 200,000 men, of whom 60,000 are for India 
exclusively. Her reserves, consisting of soldiers honorably discharged, 
amount to 47,000. Her militia amount to 140,000, and her volunteers — "for 
defence, not defiance " — number over a quarter of a million. England has 
thus a native force of 650,000 men. By the addition of the native army of 
India this is raised to 761,133. 

But it is to 

" The flag that braved a thousand years 
The battle and the breeze " 

that every Englishman looks with peculiar pride. The navy of England is 
the most powerful in the world. The total number of her war-ships is 480, of 
which 360 are steam -vessels, and 120 sailing. According to a return to Par- 
liament in 1884, the actual number of fighting vessels ready for sea was 283, 
of which 41 were ironclads of the first and second class, ranging from over 
3,000 to 8,000 tons each. The ambition of the typical English patriot is to 
have a navy " confident against the world in arms ; " her statesmen, more 
modest, demand only that England should have a force of these mailed cham- 
pions of the deep capable of coping with any combination likely to be formed 
against her. To man her fleet England has, of seamen and marines, 58,000 



ENGLAND. 2S 

men, with a reserve of 21,000, to which may be added her coast-guard of 

4,000. 

We have thus endeavored to give our readers a bird's-eye view of the to- 
pography, constitution, rehgion, and resources (natural, industrial, and warlike) 
of this famed land. The question arises : Will England maintain herself in 
the high position she has attained? As mere narrators it is not our business 
to enter deeply into this question. One fact is evident. For over a century 
England has been pre-eminently the factory for the whole world. Her great 
wealth has been built up by her supplying wares to every land. This monopoly 
she is not to enjoy longer unchallenged. Countries — as our own — which, half 
a century ago or later, were her best customers, are now manufacturing for 
themselves, and striving to build up rival industries by protective tariffs. Al- 
ready she has dangerous competitors on the continent of Europe. Whether 
the unquestioned energy, skill, and enterprise of her people will enable her to 
surmount the "breakers ahead," time alone can determine. 

Montgomery closes his fine poem, "A Voyage Round the World," with the 
following eloquently patriotic stanzas. They make a fitting close to this 
branch of our subject: 

" Now to thee, to thee I fly. 
Fairest isle beneath the sky, 
To my heart as to my eye. 

" I have seen them, one by one, 
Every shore beneath the sun, 
And my voyage now is done. 

" While I bid them all be blest, 
Britain is my home, my rest ; 
Mine own land, I love thee best." 

We have no reliable account of the island of Britain anterior to that given 
us by the great Roman commander and historian, Julius Csesar, who, at the 
head of two legions, invaded the country in the year 55 before Christ. He 
met with a people of the same race with the Kelts of Gaul, against whom he 
had been waging a war of conquest. The tribes that congregated on the cliffs 
of Dover to repel the Roman invasion were marked by the same reckless 
bravery and the same devotion to their leaders that continue to characterize 
their descendants. Csesar, on seeing the white steeps crowned by these 
hordes of nearly naked, painted barbarians, directed his vessels to be rowed 
to Deal, where landing was easier. Though the Kelts, poorly armed with 
swords of soft metal and wicker shields covered with hides, were in no condi- 
tion to contend on equal terms with the perfectly armed and trained legionaries 
of Rome, yet so determined was the resistance offered that Caesar deemed it 



24 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

prudent to retire to Gaul, whence he returned next spring at the head of five 
legions, or thirty thousand infantry and two thousand horsemen. He defeated 
the Britons, crossed the Thames, took their chief town, and on receiving 
hostages and a promise of tribute (never paid) left Britain not to return. In 
his narration of the worthless conquest, Caesar specifically mentions the ex- 
traordinary skill the Britons displayed in the management of their war- 
chariots. 

The condition of the natives of Britain at this time was that of barbarians. 
The land was covered with gloomy forests or spread into marshes, through 
which prowled the wolf the wild boar, and other savage beasts. The natives 
were split up into numberless clans or tribes, and seem to have inhabited each 
its own village in the woods, surrounded by its defence of wicker-work, con- 
sisting- of stakes driven into the ground interlaced with osiers. Tillage was 
all but unknown, the people subsisting on the flesh and milk of their herds of 
half-wild cattle, and on the produce of the chase and fishing. This last occu- 
pation they pursued in boats called coracles, consisting of a framework of 
wattle-work covered with raw hides. 

Their religion was Druidism. All knowledge was confined to the Druids, 
who were at once the priests, judges, and bards of their tribes. Even the 
Vergobrets, or princes, quailed under the domination of these men. Their 
rites were cruel, human victims being offered to their deities. The mistletoe 
was regarded with especial veneration, and at their yearly festival in March 
the chief Druid, clothed in white robes, cut, with a golden knife, the sacred 
plant from the oak to which it clung. 

For nearly a century the Romans seem to have forgotten the remote con- 
quest, till, in A. D. 43, the Emperor Claudius resolved to reduce it to a Roman 
province. For eight years a brave chief Caractacus, prolonged the defence, 
and even his defeat and capture did not terminate the struggle. At length, 
in 62, Suetonius, recognizing the fact that, so long as the sway of the Druids 
remained unbroken, conquest was impossible, determined to extirpate them in 
their chief seat, Mona (the isle of Anglesea), to which they had flocked as a 
last resort. For a moment, it is said, even the Roman soldiers faltered as 
they advanced to the massacre, appalled by the awful appearance and solemn 
words of the venerable chief Druid, and the frantic imprecations of the priests, 
priestesses, and other devotees gathered around him to protect him or die with 
him. The old man, verging on his hundredth year, his white hairs streaming 
over his shoulders and breast, and clad from head to foot in vestments white 
as his tresses, addressed the sacrilegious foe in words thus grandly voiced by 

Mrs. Hemans : 

" By the dread and viewless powers, 
Whom the storms and stars obey. 
From this dark isle's mystic bowers, 
Romans, o'er the deep away ! 



26 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Know ye Mona's awful spells ? 

She the mighty grave compels 

Back to yield its fetter'd prey. 

Fear ye not the lightning stroke? ' 

Mark ye not the fiery sky ? 

Hence ! Around our central oak 

Gods are gathering — Romans, fly ! " 

All was in vain. Their doom was sealed. The sands of Mona drank the 
blood of the last of the Druidical priesthood ; the sacred groves and temples 
were levelled to the ground or committed to the flames. 

But even the slaughter of the Druids did not terminate all resistance to the 
conquest of Britain. Boadicea, widow of the chief of the Iceni, suffered in her 
own person, as well as in those of her daughters, the grossest outrages from 
the brutal Roman soldiery. Stung to madness, she passed from tribe to tribe, 
rousing them to frenzy with the story of her wrongs. Under her personal 
leading London was captured and 70,000 Roman soldiers destroyed. Sueto- 
nius hurried back from Mona; a dreadful battle ensued near London ; 80,000 
British warriors were slaughtered, and Boadicea, in despair, put an end to her 
life. 

Thus was accomplished the first conquest of Britain. It remained for the 
governor, Agricola (78 to 86), to consolidate it by wise administration. 
Under him heathenish rites were renounced, agriculture was introduced, roads 
were made, the metals began to be worked systematically, and the natives 
gradually adopted the usages of the Romans. Among other works executed 
by him were two chains of forts, erected with the view of restraining the bar- 
barous Picts and Scots from harassing their more civilized and peace-loving 
brethren of South Britain. Rome continued in possession of Britain till 420, 
when her legions were recalled to defend the empire against the incursions of 
the flaxen-haired barbarians from the north of the Rhine. During her sway, 
not only had the Britons been taught the arts of peace, and introduced to a 
knowledge of Roman literature, but Christianity had become the dominant 
faith of the Romanized portion of the island. 

No sooner were the Roman legions recalled than the Picts and Scots, 
swarming over the now undefended walls, renewed their inroads. In reply to 
a plaintive letter entitled " the groans of the Britons," craving aid from Rome, 
the afflicted people were informed that henceforth they must defend them- 
selves. Weakened by long subjection, this they were unable to do, and in 
their extremity they had recourse to the hardy half-piratical tribes of Low 
Germans — Saxons and Angles — inhabiting the northern coast of Germany and 
the peninsula of Jutland. The first detachment of these warlike tribes landed 
at the mouth of the Thames in 449, and quickly compelled the northern ma- 
rauders to retire to their native Highlands. But they themselves had no 



ENGLAND. 27 

thought of returning to their own native shores. Attracted by the beauty and 
fertihty of the country, they coveted possession of it for themselves, and 
made their first settlement on the isle of Thanet. Pretexts for quarrels were 
not difficult to find, and quickly they turned their arms against the people they 
had come to protect. The latter, compelled to fight for themselves, recovered 
their ancient valor, and for a century and a half the struggle for mastery went 
on, fresh hordes of Germans pouring in from time to time to succor, and share 
with their brethren. 

A great battle fought near Chester in 607 decisively settled the supremacy 
of the Germans or English. As each of their chiefs took possession of what 
he conquered there arose seven different kingdoms, known as the Heptarchy, 
namely, Kent, Sussex, Wessex, Essex, East Anglia, Mercia, and Northumber- 
land. The Saxons held the southern part of England, while the Angles or 
English tribes occupied all the north and east up to the Firth of Forth. The 
unfortunate Britons were driven to take refuge in the wilds of Cornwall and 
the mountains of Wales, in which latter principality their descendants maintain 
their native speech and cherish some of their native bardic usages till the 
present day. 

Two circumstances evidence the thoroughness of this second conquest of 
Britain. Christianity, which, as it has been said, supplanted the native Druid- 
ism during the Roman occupation, disappeared; and the Low German 
dialects of the invading tribes (which eventually developed into our English 
speech) entirely superseded the Keltic language of the Britons. For a cen- 
tury and a half Britain remained under a paganism more debasing than that of 
the Druids. 

In 597 Christianity was reintroduced into Saxon England by Augustine. 
Ethelbert, King of Kent, who had married a Christian princess from Paris, 
was the earliest convert, and his people followed his example. In the course 
of a century all England was re-won to the true faith, only the names of the 
days of the week, and a few scarcely understood customs, remaining to re- 
mind us that our English forefathers worshipped the Sun and Moon, as v^'ell as 
the personal gods Tiw, Woden, Thor, Prey, and Saeter.* 

The Angles or Engles (Englisc folk) acquired a taste for literature earlier 
than the Saxons, and to this are we to attribute the fact that they gave the name 
of Engleland (England) to the whole country. It is to a priest of this race — 
the venerable Bede — a monk of Jarrow, in Northumberland, in the eighth 
century, that we are indebted for our knowledge of early English history. 

*The story of the motive for England's second conversion is thus told : The wars between the various tribes 
for supremacy filled the market-place of Rome with English slaves. Pope Gregory one day, seeing a number of 
fair-faced golden-haired children standing for sale in the forum, asked from what country they came. He was told 
they were Angles. " Not Angles but Angels," was his reply, " if only they were Christians." The result was the 
mission of Augustine and his brother monks, immediately on Gregory's learning of the marriage of Ethelbert with a 
Christi,in princess. 



28 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The Angles owed their superior culture to their being Christianized by mis- 
sionaries from Ireland, who had settled in lona. Aidan, a disciple of Columba 
(the founder of lona), came south among the Angles, on the invitation of their 
king, and founded the monastery of Lindisfarne, whence light and truth rayed 
forth over all the district. In these early days Ireland was the most enlightened 
country in Europe. 

The story of Caedmon, the earliest English writer, as told by Bede, illus- 
trates the love of the Angles for music and poetry. Born in the seventh cen- 
tury he was originally cowherd of the monastery of Whitby, and noted only for 
ienorance. When the domestics used to assemble in the evening to recreate 
themselves with song and music, Caedmon was wont to steal out to the cow- 
stable to hide his shame upon the harp being offered to him. One night 
when he had thus withdrawn he fell asleep in the stable-loft, when a stranger 
appeared and commanded him to sing. " I cannot sing," answered Caedmon ; 
"for this cause I left the feast." "Be that as it may you shall sing to me." 
" What shall I sing? " "The song of the creation." In the morning Caedmon 
stood before the Abbess Hilda, and told his dream and recited his song. Ab- 
bess and brethren at once saw that a miracle had occurred and Caedmon had 
received the gift of song fro^m heaven. A portion of Holy Writ was trans- 
lated for him, and he was directed to put it into verse. Next morning he re- 
cited the additional verses. The abbess, now recognizing the divine grace in 
the man, bade him quit the secular habit and take on him the monastic life. 
Piece by piece the sacred story was worked into Caedmon's song, till it reached 
a bulk equal to nearly the half of Paradise Lost, to which some of it bears a 
striking resemblance. 

There is one drawback to this strangely mysterious story. There is some 
evidence that "the song" was in existence before Caedmon was born. If so, 
pious fraud and an excellent memory raised the cowherd to what men call im- 
mortality as the author of the earliest English epic poem. Caedmon died in 
680. 

Many and bitter were the conflicts waged between the several petty kings 
of England, now the sovereign of one district striving for the overlordship of all 
the land ; now, another. It was not till the English had been in the land for 
nearly 400 years that it became consolidated into one nation under Egbert, 
King of Wessex, who reigned from 827 to 837, his chief city, Winchester, 
becoming the capital of England. 

No dweller in this land of freedom ought to forget that it is to these old 
English of North Germany and Jutland that we are indebted for the germs 
of these institutions which constitute the bulwark of our liberties — notably 
for trial by jury and our legislative assemblies, whether bearing the name of 
National Parliaments, Congresses, or State Legislatures. Jury trial had its ori- 
gin in the Anglo-Saxon local courts for the settlement of disputes, consisting 



ENGLAND. 29 

of twelve men presided over by a reeve, who had no voice in the decisions. 
Still more clearly, our constitutional deliberative assemblies have their root in 
the Witenagemote, or meeting of the wise men, whose function it was to assist 
the chief or king in the government of his people, and in the event of his 
death to elect a successor to him, taken from the royal family. When Eng- 
land became one nation, this assembly, composed of Ealdormen (Earls), Bishops, 
and Abbots, met regularly three times a year, as also on special occasions 
when summoned. In addition to their functions as counsellors of the sov- 
ereign these greater nobles or Earls were the judges of their respective 
districts, invested with the power of life and death. Below them were the 
Thanes, men who had risen to the ranks of the nobility by personal services 
to the kine. Next to these came the Churls, freemen in whom we are to look 
for the prototypes of the famed yeomen of England. Last of all came the 
Serfs, a class bound to the soil on which they were born. This lowest class 
constituted two-thirds of the people of early England. 

The Englishman used to wear a long woollen or hempen dress resembling 
the frock yet worn by English wagoners, and their legs were wound round 
by strips of cloth in lieu of stockings. Their houses were of wood, one story, 
and chimneyless, a hole in the ridge serving for the escape of the smoke from 
the fire that burned directly under it. The windows were unglazed, the first 
glass in the country being that brought from Italy for York Cathedral, or, as 
some say, for Hexham Abbey, and this the people flocked from far to see as 
a great marvel. In case of storm the windows were closed with shutters, in 
which occasionally a piece of thin, semi-translucent horn was inserted, afford- 
ing just light enough to make darkness visible. At noon the lord and lady of 
the house took their place at the head of the dinner-table, seated on cross- 
legged stools, the family, dependents, and servants sitting along the table on 
benches. Square pieces of wood, called trenchers, served instead of plates, and 
the servants carried round the meat on spits, from which each one cut off his 
portion with his own knife, eating it without a fork. The bones or rejected 
pieces were thrown on the floor, which in the better class of houses was daily 
covered with fresh rushes, and for these waifs the great hunting-dogs struggled 
and fought. Mead or ale was quaffed freely, the lord and lady drinking from 
silver cups, and pledging the company with the words " M^a^s heal" (wassail), 
or " Health to you," while the retainers responded by elevating their beakers 
of cow-horn and shouting "Drinc heal." The Saxons, unlike their Norman 
successors, were gross feeders and stout drinkers, one of the chief delights in 
their heathen heaven or Walhalla being great feasts, with unstinted goblets 
of their favorite mead. But the Saxon was not insensible to the charm of 
poetry and music. The " gleeman " or wandering minstrel was often intro- 
duced at their feasts, joyously welcomed, and generously treated. Chroniclers 
say that even in time of war these ministers of pleasure were privileged to 
travel securely over the country at their discretion. 



30 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

No sooner were the different kingdoms of England united into one than a 
new cloud darkened its horizon. Norway and its fellow Scandinavian king- 
doms were at this time brought to order by a series of great sovereigns, and the 
bolder and more unruly spirits who would not submit to their rule were driven 
to the sea and embraced a life of piracy and war. These were the " Vikings " 
of the poet and chronicler, the " Danes " of English history. At first they 
contented themselves with landing on the eastern shores of England, fillinor 
their long ships with plunder and returning to their strongholds on the shores 
of the Baltic or North Sea for the winter. Tempted, like their Anglo-Saxon 
predecessors, by the richness and fertility of the country, they began to form 
settlements at various points, and to wage war with the English of the interior. 
And now began a struggle characterized by terrible ferocity. The Danes 
regarded the English as apostates from the ancient faith of their common 
ancestry, and religious hate embittered a conflict between races stern enough 
without such instigation. It was at the commencement of this gloomy period 
that •' the bright, consummate flower " of Saxon manhood showed itself Alfred, 
commonly known as Alfred the Great, grandson of Egbert, was born in 849. 
Though youngest of tour sons, he was chosen to succeed his brother Ethelred 
on the throne, which he ascended at the acre of twentv-three. Even before 
this he had given proof of his ability as a warrior in repelling the Danes, and 
on becoming king he redoubled his exertions. But the enemy poured fresh 
bands upon the coast, and in 878 the invaders had overrun all his ancestral 
kingdom of Wessex. Alfred, forced to take refuge in the woods and morasses, 
found shelter for a time in a cowherd's hut. There it is said he was set by 
the herdsman's wife to watch some cakes that were baking at the fire. Alfred, 
intent on repairing his bow, let the cakes burn, and was reproved by the indignant 
matron, with the remark that he was glad enough to eat them, though too care- 
less to turn them. He did not cease to keep up communication with his friends, 
and building a stronghold on an elevation amid the marshes ot Somersetshire, 
still known as Athelney or " the island of the nobles," he made frequent suc- 
cessful sallies against the enemy. On one occasion he introduced himself 
into their camp in the disguise of a minstrel, and, after amusing the unsuspi- 
cious Danes, disappeared as mysteriously as he came. Putting himself at the 
head of his followers, he fell upon the unguarded camp of the enem)' and 
gained a great victory. Guthrum, their king, accepted baptism, and, withdraw- 
ing from Wessex, settled with his followers in the east of England, and ever 
after proved faithful in his allegiance. To meet his foes at sea lie built Eng- 
land's first fleet, and on the arrival of Hastings, the great sea-king, he hurried 
to meet him. captured his fleet, routed his army, and compelled that robber- 
chief to flee to France. In 888 Alfred was recoQuized as king of all England. 
During the ensuing years of peace he rebuilt ruined cities, erected fortresses, 
trained his people to arms, encouraged husbandry and other useful arts, and 



ENGLAND. 



31 



inaugurated many wise laws and institutions which contributed to the future 
o-reatness of Britain. In an age of ignorance he was a scholar and patron 
of learning, himself translating several works from Latin into Anglo-Saxon. 
He died in 901 at the age of fifty-two, leaving his country in the enjoyment of 
peace and prosperity. It has been said that during his reign gold and jewels 
could be left unguarded by the wayside and would remain untouched by travel- 
ler or dweller. 

It would carry us far beyond 
our bounds were we to enter 
into the details of the history 
of Alfred's successors. But it 
would be a sadly defective view 
of these early times did we oinit 
reference to the church and the 
part it played in English history. 
Briefly it may be said that the 
monasteries and abbeys with 
which the country abounded 
were the depositories of all the 
learning of the time. The ex- 
quisitely illuminated missals 
and other manuscripts, still 
extant, testify to the devotion 
and diligence of the monks in 
multiplying and beautifying re- 
ligious works. But there was 
another sphere in which the 
clergy played a great part. 
This was statesmanship, for 

which their superior learning and shrewdness especially qualified them. 
As illustrative of this phase of national life we shall briefly summarize the 
biography of St. Dunstan. 

Born of noble parents, in 925, and having an uncle Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, Dunstan was carefully educated for the church; endowed with high 
talent, he became accomplished in many directions. He was not only a learned 
scholar, but he was also an excellent composer of music, a skilled performer 
on several instruments, a painter, a worker in design, a calligrapher, a jeweller, 
and a blacksmith. Being introduced by his uncle to the court of King Athel- 
stan, the nobles, with true prescience of his character, from dread of his in- 
fluence, procured his expulsion as a sorcerer. 

He now assumed a new role. He constructed a cell, partly under ground, 
five feet long by two wide, so that he could not lie in it at full length, and this 




ALFRED THE GREAT IN HIS STUDY. 
(By A. Maillart.) 



32 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

he made his bed-chamber, his workshop, and oratory. Asceticism of so pre- 
eminently pious character naturally stirred the devil to action, and he, putting 
his head in at the window one evening, when the saint was at work at his 
forge, attempted to allure him to his service by seductively immoral proposals. 
The temptation only roused the holy man to indignation, and parleying only 
till his tongs attained a white heat, he seized the foul fiend with this imple- 
ment by the nose, and so held him till the neighborhood re-echoed with his 
yells. 

It was impossible, in such an age, that sanctity of this proved character could 
pass unnoticed. On the accession of Edmund to the throne Dunstan was 
recalled to court. But in spite of his penances and exploits, in spite even of 
the odor of sanctity, he was still antagonized by the nobles, who knew his 
ambition and dreaded his talents and determination of character. A second 
time, therefore, he was dismissed, but on this occasion he was, in respect of 
his saintliness, created Abbot of Glastonbury. Edred, Edmund's successor, 
showed Dunstan great favor, and the vigorous policy of this reign is- ascribed 
to the inspiration of the great monk. For the first time the Danes of North- 
umbria were reduced to a state of complete subjugation, while, on the other 
hand, the monkish orders were promoted to great pre-eminence and power. 
After a reign of nine years Edred died and was succeeded by Edwy. This 
prince had long suspected Dunstan of peculation, and knew him to be the 
bitter foe of his wife Edgiva, and one of the first acts of his reign was to 
degrade him from his office and banish him ; while all his reforms in the 
church were frustrated, and the monks expelled from their monasteries. 
Dunstan fled to Flanders, narrowly escaping having his eyes put out by 
officers sent to seize him with this purpose. Almost immediately on his flight 
the Northumbrian Danes again rose, while, shortly thereafter, King Edwy's 
brother Edoar, a lad of fifteen, was chosen sovereicrn of the districts north of 
the Thames. Dunstan came home from his brief exile in triumph. The 
mysterious death of Edwy's beautiful wife Edgiva (whom Dunstan hated) 
broke that monarch's heart, and Edgar became King of all England. This 
boy-king was but a tool in the hands of the astute and determined churchman. 
Dunstan's opportunity had now come, and he quickly showed that the high 
estimate of his powers was in no respect exaggerated. All the districts of 
the country were consolidated into union more compact than had ever been 
known before ; the Danes were again reduced to subjection and their kingdom 
broken up into earldoms ; a navy was created to defend the coast against 
Norse invaders; the king was induced to visit every part of his dominions 
annually, holding courts of justice and granting audiences to his subjects; 
wild beasts were extirpated ; the coinage reformed, and many other wise meas- 
ures adopted which space forbids us to enumerate. Priestlike, Dunstan 
never forgot he was a churchman. Monasteries were founded in every part 



ENGLAND. 33 

of the kingdom, and filled with celibate recluses and endowed till over a third 
part of the land of the country was in the hands of the church. The holy 
man himself accepted the highest dignity in the English church, namely, the 
Archbishopric of Canterbury. 

On Edgar's death a struggle took place for the successorship. Like the 
war-horse of Scripture, Dunstan, smelling the battle from afar, again rushed 
into the arena of conflict. Partially foiled by a wicked and unscrupulous 
woman who murdered Edward, the successor preferred by Dunstan, the arch- 
bishop was compelled to place the crown on the head of Athelred, whose 
claims he had opposed. His credit and influence now declined ; even his 
threats of divine vengeance were treated with indifference. Unable to bear 
up against the disgrace of discomfiture and contempt, Dunstan, in 988, retired 
to his archiepiscopal capital, where he died of grief. 

The great blot on Dunstan's character is the suspicion (so strong as to be 
almost certainty) that he was an instigator of, or consenter to, the barbarities 
practised on Queen Edgiva, whose face was burned with red-hot irons to de- 
stroy her beauty, and who was subsequently hamstrung and tortured so that she 
died. The thoughtful reader of this story of Dunstan will not fail to gain from 
it large insight into the condition of England — intellectually, morally, and 
religiously — during the tenth century. 

The bells that rung in the accession of Athelred, "The Redeless," sounded 
the knell of Anglo-Saxon supremacy. No sooner was the strong hand of 
Dunstan removed than the Danish settlers in the north renewed hostilities, 
aided by fresh bands of their countrymen who ravaged the coasts. The weak 
king had recourse to the fatal expedient of buying them off and a tax, bearing 
the name of Danegelt, was imposed for the purpose of paying them an annual 
tribute. The Danes were at the same time permitted to settle where they 
chose, even in Wessex. To strengthen himself Athelred married Emma, 
daughter of the Duke of Normandy, and it was soon seen that the so-called 
peace was only a screen for treachery. Urged by secret orders from the king 
the men of Wessex rose on St. Brice's day, 1002, and pitilessly massacred 
the Danes. Among others killed were Gunhild, sister of Swegn, King of 
Norway, as well as her husband and child. Swegn vowed vengeance, and 
kept his vow ruthlessly. Through and through Wessex he marched at the 
head of his terrible " Berserkers," "lio-htiuCT his war-beacons as he went, leavinof 
behind him only corpses and the smoke of burning dwellings." In ten years 
Swegn was master of all England, but died just on the eve of his coronation. 
Athelred at once returned from the court of his brother-in-law, where he had 
taken refuge, and inspired by the example and counsels of the chivalric Nor- 
mans conducted himself with such resolution that he compelled the young 
Norse king, Cnut, to withdraw to his native land. Athelred died in 1016, 
leaving it to his son Edmund, called, from his hardihood, " Ironsides," to con- 



34 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

tinue the struggle with Cnut, who had returned at the head of fresh forces. 
Well did the young Englishman vindicate his surname. He fought five pitched 
battles with the Danes, and peace was restored by an arrangement by which 
Cnut became sovereign of North England, while Edmund was king of all the 
rest. In loi 7 Edmund was murdered by his nobles at Oxford, and the Danish 
or Norse king, Cnut, was sovereign of all England. 

Cnut was not only a brave warrior, but he was a wise and thoughtful man.^ 
He married the Norman Emma, widow of Athelred, and strove, with success, 
to weld the Danes and the Anglo-Saxons into one united English people. 
One main distinction is to be noted between the conquest of England by the 
Danes and the conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons. The Britisli Kelts 
and the Teutonic Saxons and Angles were peoples totally dissimilar in race, 
speech, and religion. The Danes and Anglo-Saxons were nearly aUied 
branches of the same stock. So soon as the stumbling-block of religion was 
removed by tlie conversion of the Danes, the two races naturally and easily 
coalesced. Cnut proved his title to be regarded among the wisest and best 
of England's kings by his treatment of the Christian church. His Danish pre- 
decessors had been merciless, when they had the power, in their destruction 
of religious houses, and the massacre of their inmates. Cnut, whether from 
policy or conviction, encouraged his people to unity of faith with the Christian 
Anglo-Saxons, founded and endowed religious houses, and even protected 
pious Christians on their pilgrimages to Rome against the robbers of the 
Alps. Thus did Angles, Saxons, and Danes become fused into one people. 

There is no king of whom more pleasant stories are told than of Cnut. 
One cold Candlemas-day he set out on foot to attend mass at Ely Abbey. 
The abbey stood on high ground in the midst of a morass, which was frozen 
over. Cnut's attendants hesitated to venture on the ice and dissuaded the 
king from attempting to cross. At length a jolly countryman, who from his 
plumpness bore the sobriquet of " The Pudding," stepped forward: "What!" 
said he, "are you Christians, and afraid to go to God's house or to let your 
king go ? Lo, I will go before him, and we shall pass in safety." " Where this 
p-ood fellow eoes, I will follow," said Cnut, "so help me the Christians' God." 
The passage was made in safety, and "The Pudding" was rewarded by being 
made proprietor of a piece of land. Whether there was politic arrangement 
in the matter we cannot know. In any case in these days of credulity it had its 
influence in reconciling the Danes to acceptance of the Christian faith. The 
pleasing song which he composed while rowing, on one occasion, on the vast 
fen waters surrounding the abbey and listening to the monks' even-song, 
goes to prove that his regard for these holy men was sincere. " Merrily sang 
the monks of Ely when Cnut the king rowed by. Row, boatmen, near the 
land, and hear we these monks sing." The story of Cnut's rebuke to his fawn- 
ing courtiers, who professed to believe he could control the winds and the tides^ 
is too well known to require recital. 




BAPTISM OF CNUT BY AUGUSTINE. 



l35) 



36 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Cnut died, lamented, in 1036, and was succeeded first by a son, Harold, and 
on Harold's death by another son, Harthacnut. Both of the great man's sons 
so disgusted the people by their cruelties and excesses that, on Harthacnut's 
death, in 1041, they called Edward the Confessor, son of Cnut's wife Emma 
by her former husband, Athelred, to the throne, and the Anglo-Saxons greatly 
rejoiced to see a king of their own stock once more sovereign of England. 
Edward was, after all, only half-English, and he had been brought up among 
his mother's relations in Normandy. To the displeasure of his people he sur- 
rounded himself too much with Norman counsellors and courtiers. He had, 
however, the wisdom to select as his principal adviser the great Earl of 
Wessex, Godwin, son-in-law of Cnut, and the ablest statesman in the kingdom. 
Godwin by his skill and influence was able to maintain peace between the 
jealous English and the haughty Normans. An interesting story is told regard- 
ing the manner in which Godwin first rose to distinction. Ulf a Danish jarl, 
who had received in marriage a sister of Cnut, after one of the battles with Ed- 
mund Ironsides, was separated from the rest of the army. He wandered all one 
dark, inclement night, and in the morning met a youth driving out some cattle. 
Ulf asked his name, and the reply was: "I am Godwin, son of Ulfnoth, and 
you are, I think, a Dane." Ulf confessed that he was, and begged the young 
man to show him the way to the Severn, where he expected to find the Danish 
fleet. "The Dane would be a fool who trusted a Saxon for his guide," said 
the youth ; " how know you I will not betray you ? " "I can trust iw^" " .Ah, 
but you cannot trust the Serfs, who, if they find you, and me guiding you, will 
slay both of us." Ulf offered the young man a golden ring and redoubled his 
entreaties. " I will take nothing from you, but I will lead \ ou to my father's 
house, and there you shall lie hid till night, when I will guide you. " At night, 
when the two were setting out, Ulfnoth told Ulf that his son would never be 
able to return, and be^^ged him to keep him among his people and present 
him to King Cnut. This was the foundation of Godwin's greatness. He 
married Gydu, sister of Ulf, and thus was brought into near connection with 
Cnut. 

The story of Godwin's death as given by the Norman chroniclers is no less 
interesting. One of King Edward's brothers had been slain, and there was 
suspicion that Godwin was privy to it. One day, when the king and Godwin 
were feasting, one of the cup-bearers chanced to make a false step, but saved 
himself from falling by laying hold of a brother who ran to help him. " See," 
said Godwin, " how one brother helps another." "Yes," said the king, "so 
would my brother have helped me, had he lived." "I know you suspect me of 
his death," replied Godwin, " but may God cause this morsel of bread to choke 
me if I am guilty of his murder." .Scarcely had he uttered the words when 
he fell back, struck by the hand of Heaven, his soul going straight into the 
presence of his Maker for judgment. 



ENGLAND. 



37 



Edward himself was a pious man and a just ruler. Such was his sanctity 
that his touch was believed to cure scrofula or the "king's evil," a belief 
that continued to attach itself to the royal family till the days of Queen 
Anne. A hundred years after his death he was canonized as a saint. 

On Edward's death, in 1066, Harold, son of the great Saxon Earl Godwin, 
was chosen by the Witenagemote to ascend the throne. 

Scarcely had Harold begun to reign ere a terrible rival appeared to 
dispute his claim. 



NORMAN CONQUEST. 

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR. 1066— 10S7. 

A hundred years before the date of which we now writ^ a great band of 
these same Norse Vikings who had so long harassed England appeared in 
their long ships in the Seine, under a leader, Rolf or Rollo, and speedily overran 
that district of France known then as Neustria, but later as Normandy. The 
spirit of these people may be judged of by their conduct when the French king 
consented to give up this fairest portion of his domain to the daring invaders, 
on condition that their chief would kiss his foot in token of vassalaee. This 
Rolf absolutely refused to do, and was persuaded with difficulty to permit one 

of his followers to kiss the foot in his stead. 
The proxy, as proud as his master, refused to 
kneel, but seizing the kinof's foot whilst he him- 
self stood upright, after performing the meaning- 
less act, tossed it from him right up, thus over- 
turning both monarch and throne, amid the rude 
laughter of his companions. Charles and his 
courtiers were in such dread of their new vassals 
that they did not dare to resent the insult. 

William, Duke of Normandy, claimed the 
English throne on terms of an alleged will made 
in his favor by Edward the Confessor, and landed 
at the head of a great army of Normans in Oc- 
tober, 1066, to maintain his claim. Harold, 
fresh from a victory over the Danes, who had 
renewed their incursions, hurried south to meet him. The result was a great 
battle at Hastings, wherein Harold was slain, and William gained a decisive 
victory, which established him on the English throne. 

William brought with him his bard Taillefer, to celebrate the assured 




WILLIAM I. (THE CONQUEROR). 



38 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

victory, and he rode in front of the Norman knighthood, as they charged on 
the English footmen standing around their kincf on the heieht of Senlac, toss- 
ing his sword in the air and catching it again, as he chanted the song of Roland. 
We are unable to reproduce the strain he sung after the battle and which was 
chanted for long years after at the great feasts in the royal and baronial halls. 
We give in place the lay of one of England's greatest martial poets — Thomas 
Campbell : 

" I climbed to yon heights where the Norman encamped him of old, 
With his bowmen and knights, and his banner all burnished with gold. 
At the conqueror's side there his minstrelsy sat harp in hand 
In pavilion wide ; and they chanted the deeds of Roland. 
Still the ramparted ground with a vision my fancy inspires. 
And I hear the trump sound, as it marshalled our chivalry's sires. 
On each turf of that mead stood the captors of England's domains, 
That ennobled her breed and high-mettled the blood in her veins. 
Over hauberk and helm as the sun's setting splendor was thrown, 
Thence they looked o'er a realm — and to-morrow beheld it their own." 

These French Normans were no longer the rude sea-rovers and swords- 
men — the terror of all the sea-coasts of Europe — that their ancestors had 
been. During their hundred years of intercourse with the more cultured 
Franks they had adopted their speech, religion, and manners, inspiring every- 
thing they borrowed with their own splendid vitality. They were indeed the 
very pink of medieval chivalry, the most warlike, vigorous, and brilliant race 
in Europe. They looked on the plainer English people with contempt and 
spoiled them without mercy. The land was wrested from the Anglo-Saxon 
earls, and thanes, and churls, and conferred by William on his nobles and 
other followers. In this we see the origin of the great estates, held in some 
cases by the heirs and descendants of these fortunate favorites, at the present 
day. Normans were put into all places of dignity and power; and the feudal 
system was introduced, by which the great nobles were granted almost un- 
limited power over all their tenants, on condition of their coming to the aid of 
the king in case of war, along with all their retainers. The larger properties 
were divided into smaller holdings, the possessor of each of which was bound 
by the same oath to his over-lord as he to the crown. " Hear, my lord," 
swore the vassal, as kneeling bareheaded and without arms he placed his 
hands within those of his superior. "I become liegeman of yours for life and 
limb and earthly regard ; and I will keep faith and loyalty to you for life and 
death, God help me." 

The English — a solid German people — had little feeling for elegance or 
art. The few remains of their buildings show these to have been strongf, 
indeed, but tasteless. Tiieir domestic buildings were all but exclusively of 
wood. The Normans had acquired not only refinement of taste but a good 



ENGLAND. 39 

knowledge of architecture. Immediately after the conquest the land began 
to be covered with castellated fortresses, fortified with moat and drawbridge, 
portcullis, barbican, and bastion, and having narrow slit-like windows whence 
arrows could be poured on an enemy. In the single reign of Stephen no fewer 
than 1,115 of such castles were built. Their lords were petty tyrants; while 
their retainers sallied forth from these robber-holds armed cap-a pie, swords 
by their sides and lances in their hands, to plunder the English yeomen and bur- 
gesses at pleasure. No company of travellers, no caravan of goods, was safe 
from their attacks. The poor natives, who constituted the entire trading and 
industrial community, had no redress. These protected bravoes retired with 
their booty into the strongholds of their chiefs and laughed their victims to 
scorn. 

It is thus that Crabbe, " Nature's sternest painter but the best," celebrates 
Belvoir Castle, one of the most ancient in Britain. On its site a mighty chief 
of the Britons built his hold ; afterward a Sa.xon lord erected on it a cas- 
tle ; and last came the Norman baron. Here we allow the poet to speak 

for himself. 

"A Norman baron, in succeeding time, 
Here, while the minstrel sang heroic rhyme, 
In feudal pomp appeared. It was his praise 
A loftier dome with happier skill to raise; 
His halls, still gloomy, yet with grandeur rose; 
Here friends were feasted, here confined were foes. 
No softening arts in those fierce times were found, 
But rival barons spread their terrors round; 
Each in the fortress of his power secure. 
Of foes was fearless and of soldiers sure; 
And here the chieftain, for his prowess praised. 
Long held the castle that his might had raised." 

Hunting by hawk and hound, or shooting the deer with arrows, were 
favorite pastimes. JMear William's castle of Winchester, Hampshire, lay a 
great stretch of heathy ground, nearly 60,000 acres in extent, interspersed 
with frequent copses of beech and oak and verdant glades between, a favorite 
haunt of deer, wild boars, and other game. But for one drawback this consti- 
tuted a noble hunting-ground. It was peopled by many a village and hamlet, 
by many a plain Saxon churl's homestead and many a serf's cottage. With- 
out a scruple the wretched natives were driven forth and their homes burned. 
The entire tract was converted into huntingr-crround under the name of the 
New Forest — a name which at an interval of 800 years it yet bears. Sixty- 
five such forests were thus created in England, with what misery to the people 
our readers can judge. The forest laws were of terrible severity, the penalty 
for killing a stag or wild boar being loss of the eyes. The very dogs of the 
dwellers on the borders of the forest were mutilated by having the balls of 



40 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



their feet cut out so that they could not follow the chase. "William," says the 
Saxon chronicle, "loved the great deer as if he had been their father." 

Every effort was made to suppress the native speech. Norman-French 
was the language of the court, of law, of the church, of literature, and of the 
schools. To teach English at school was a punishable offence. Even to this 
day Norman-French law phrases 
linger in our law-courts. When 
the crier of an American court 
calls out on its opening each 
morning, " O yes ! O yes ! O 
yes ! I declare this honorable 
court now open," he is but re- 
peating the old Norman Oyez ! 
Oyez ! Oyez ! hear ye ! hear 
ye ! hear ye ! 

Nor must we forget to speak 
of the curfew. Precisely at sun- 
down on every summer even- 
ing, and at 8 o'clock in winter, 
there rang out a peal from every 
church tower and monastery 
steeple in England, command- 
ing the people to cover their 
fires, extinguish every light, and 
retire to rest. 

We have spoken of the 
castles of the nobles that now 
studded the land. In these 
the prime object was strength, 
combined with which there was 
some degree of grandeur. It was different with the noble Gothic ecclesias- 
tical structures that now began to "arise like exhalations" over all the 
country. The remains of these creations of genius (especially of those of 
centuries somewhat later, whose ornamentation has been likened to " frosted 
lace-work ") testify that with all his sternness the Norman had a true sense 
of the beautiful. 

William's death was characteristic. On one occasion, when he was 
sick, the King of France made a silly jest on his corpulence. " Our brother 
in England," he said, "is a long time lying in ! There will be great doings at 
his churching." "When I get up," William said grimly, "I will go to mass in 
Philip's land, and will bring a rich offering for my churching. I will offer a 
thousand candles for my fee: flaming brands shall they be, and steel shall glit- 




BURIAL OF ^A'ILL1AM THE CONQUEROR. 



ENGLAND. 



41 



ter over the fire they make." In fulfilment of this stern vow William traversed 
France, devastating it with fire and sword. In passing through the town of 
Mantes, while it was in flames, his horse stumbled on a burning brand, and 
William was sorely injured by being thrown heavily against the pommel of 
his saddle. He was borne nome to Rouen, the capital of his paternal Duchy 
of Normandy, to die. 



WILLIAM RUFUS. 1087— iioo. 

William had conquered England by his sword, and he disposed of the suc- 
cession according to his pleasure. He left his 
hereditary Duchy of Normandy to his eldest 
son Robert, surnamed Curthose; but England 
he gave to his second and favorite son William, 
called, from the color of his hair, William 
Rufus, or red head. 

With the Normans came the romance of 
war. But for them the Crusades, the first of 
which commenced during William's reign, 
would have had few English representatives. 
The holy land had fallen under the sway of the 
Saracens, who submitted the pious pilgrims to 
the sites of our Lord's passion and resurrec- 
tion to manifold indignities and injuries. At 
length a returned pilgrim, Peter the Hermit, 
received authority from the pope to call on 
the princes and nobles of Christendom to 
proceed to Palestine, and rescue the holy places from Saracen rule. Forth- 
with, from every Christian land, there issued men whose high purpose it was 

' ' To chase those pagans in these blessed fields 
Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed 
For our advantage on the blessed cross." 

One of the foremost to listen to the summons was Robert Curthose, a much 
less calculadng man than his brother William. His weak point was want of 
money, and he offert^d 60 give his Duchy in pledge to the Red King, provided 
he would advance the needed gold. The terms were gladly accepted and a 
transaction carried through, that for centuries gave the English sovereigns a 
colorable claim to dominion over French territory. 

It is not our province to enter into the details of the expedidon on which 
Robert now set out. It is only needful to state that after the loss of incal- 




WILLIAM II 



42 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

culable lives, Jerusalem was taken and the kingship offered to Robert. This 
proffer he declined, purposing to return and look after his interests in Europe. 

Here we may pause for a moment to note, that, comparatively fruitless as 
this and all succeeding crusades were in direct results, indirectly they con- 
tributed largely to the civilization and culture of the nations participating in 
them. They broadened the minds of men by opening up to them new fields 
of observation ; they brought nationalities into contact with each other and 
taught tliem to act in harmony, or at least in concert ; they familiarized 
Europe to some extent with the learning of the East; they promoted naviga- 
tion and ship-building and e.xtended the knowledge of astronomy. Above all, 
they may be said to have originated and fostered that spirit of chivalry which 
for centuries was the main humanizing influence in these otherwise dark and 
fierce acres. 

During Robert's absence in Palestine the Red King met his death. His 
end, like his father's, was tragical. While hunting in the New Forest he was 
shot by an arfow sped from a bow discharged by his friend and companion. 
Sir Walter Tyrrell, to whom he had given " three long arrows." Whether 
the shot was designed will never be known. This, at least, is certain, that, 
in expiation. Sir Walter set off to join the crusade. Men were not slack 
to see in William's fate an act of divine retribution for the depopulation of 
the New Forest. His corpse lay uncared for, where he fell at the foot of an 
oak tree, till one Purkiss, a charcoal-burner, belonging to the forest-hamlet 
of Minestead, came by and lifted it up, and carried it in his rude cart, which 
dripped with the blood flowing from the wound, to Winchester. Purkiss' 
descendants still dwell at Minestead, and the way by which he travelled is- 
still called the King's Lane. The oak under which William fell stood till 
1745, and a stone now marks the place. 

"A Minestead cliurl, whose wonted trade 
Was burning charcoal in the glade, 

Outstretched amid the gorse 
The monarch found ; and in his wain 
He raised, and to St. Swithin's fane 

Conveyed the bleeding corse. 

"And still — so runs our forest creed — 
Flourish the pious woodman's seed. 

Even on the self-same spot : 
One horse and cart, their little store. 
Like their forefathers, neither more 

Nor less, their children's lot. • 

"Thus in those fields the Red King died 
His father wasted in his pride. 



ENGLAND. 43 

For it is God's command, 
Who doth another's birthright rive, 
The curse unto his blood shall cleave, 

And God's own word shall stand." 

Taking advantage of Robert's absence, Henry, the youngest son of the 
Conqueror, now mounted the throne. 



HENRY I. (BEAUCLERC). 1 100— 11 35. 

Judging from the character of the successive kings of England one is forced 
to the conchision that a really good man is one of the rarest things in nature. 
Henry (surnamed from his learning Beauclerc), the youngest son of the Con- 
queror, was one of England's ablest kings. He shielded the people against 
the exactions of the nobles, gave them a charter of liberties, renounced the 

right to plunder the church, and conciliated 
his people by marrying the Scotch princess, 
Maud, great-granddaughterof Edmund Iron- 
sides, thus uniting the Norman and Saxon 
lines. Yet he was a grasping, heartless, 
cold-blooded man. His brother Robert, on 
his return from Palestine, made an attempt 
on the throne, but finding the people 
devoted to Henry he recrossed to France 
without a battle. Several of the greater 
nobles, fretting at the restrictions Henry 
laid upon them, had favored Robert. Their 
estates were confiscated and parcelled out 
among a lesser nobility of the king's crea- 
tion, while their owners pined eyeless in noisome dungeons. 

Robert managed badly in Normandy.. It is said he was so poor that he 
had sometimes to lie in bed because he had no clothes to wear. Some of 
his nobles, disgusted, invited Henry over to take the duchy. Henry appeared 
in France at the head of an army, mainly composed of native English. The 
two brothers met in battle at Trenchbray, and once more English bows and 
bills confronted, as at Hastings, the swords and lances of Norman chivalry. 
The English gained the victory, and they gloried over it as a set-off for Hast- 
ings. Robert was captured, and lingered twenty-eight years a prisoner in 
Cardiff Castle. Having once attempted to escape, his heartless brother caused 
his eyes to be burned out with red-hot irons. 

Henry's death was sadder than that of either his father or brother William. 
His son, William the Atheling, with a crowd of nobles, prepared to accom- 
pany him on his return to England. There was unbounded festivity on board 




00 



HENRY 1. 



44 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



the "White Ship," on which the young prince had embarked. Scarcely had 
she cleared the harbor till she struck a rock. One terrible cry rung through 
the silence of the night and reached the ears of the king. When morning 
came only the top-mast was visible, with two men clinging to it. One dropped 
off before he was rescued, and the only survivor of all that jovial crew was a 
poor butcher of Rouen. When Henry was made aware of the fatal truth 
he dropt senseless to the ground, and rose never to smile again. He died 

in 1135- 

Henry named his daughter, Maude, married to Geoffrey Plantagenet, 
Earl of Anjou, as his successor. But in these iron days men did not take 
readily to a female sovereign, so Stephen of Blois, grandson of the Con- 
queror, seized the throne. 



STEPHEN I. 

The condition of England during Stephen's sway was appalling. The 
great nobles, knowing the weakness of his claim, thought they could do as 
they wished. Baron made war on baron ; 
travellers were waylaid, and wealthy burgesses 
were immured in dungeons and tortured till 
they yielded up their wealth. When Stephen 
attempted to check these atrocities, they 
turned round and told him that not he, but 
Maude Plantagenet, was their sovereign. On 
their invitation, Maude came over, and a civil 
war ensued, which resulted in the division of 
the kingdom between Stephen and Maude's 
son, Henry. During the war "confusion be- 
came worse confounded." The land was a 
prey to disorderly soldiery. The woods were 
filled with outlaws, mainly English, who killed 
the king's deer, preyed on the Normans and wealthy priests and burgesses, 
but spared their poor countrymen, and were generous to the peasantry, often 
bestowing on them a portion of their spoils. These were the dwellers in the 
" merrie green-wood," whom the old ballad-makers delighted to celebrate. 
Robin Hood, the bandit-hero of Sherwood Forest, " the English ballad-singer's 
joy," with his jovial companions. Little John, Friar Tuck, and their sylvan 
mistress. Maid Marion, belong, indeed, to a subsequent reign, but they were 
the accepted types of the class. 

Stephen lived but a year after the division of the kingdom, and Henry 
Plantagenet assumed the crown without opposition. 




STEPHEN I. 



ENGLAND. 



45 



HENRY II. (PLANTAGENET). 1154— 1189. 

The second Henry was only in his twenty-first year when he mounted the 
throne of England in circumstances so perplexing. But he was of the stuff 
of which rulers are made — an active, vigorous man with much of the ability, 
and many of the accomplishments, of his grandfather Henry I. He set to 
work to educe order out of confusion, moving from place to place unweariedly. 

He cleared the country of foreign soldiery, dis- 
mantled or demolished many of the robber holds 
of the nobility, confirmed a charter of privileges 
to his people, and, in the words of a historian, 
"no one in so short a time had done so much 
eood, and orained so much love, since Alfred." 
He established trial by jury on a more satis- 
factory basis than formerly, and reformed the 
judiciary system. Here it is interesting to note 
some of the old modes of trying suspected or 
accused persons. One was by ordeal, or sub- 
mitting the case to the judgment of God. If the 
prisoner could plunge his hand into boilingwater, 
or carry a red-hot bar of iron a certain distance, 
without exhibiting any scar, he was pronounced 
innocent. Sometimes he was bound hand and 
foot and thrown into water. If he sank he was innocent; if he swam, guilty. 
This was a favorite and effectual way of disposing of witches. Another mode 
was trial by wager of battle. This mode was introduced by the Conqueror 
and continued in le^al force till the reien oi Georo^e III. 

The two grand events in Henry's reign was his conflict with the church 
and the conquest of Ireland. 

Hitherto clerics (that is, all educated persons, whether in holy orders or 
not) were subject only to ecclesiastical courts, which could not inflict capital 
punishment. This was called benefit of clergy. Henry was resolved to 
amend this. More than 100 murders were committed in the early years of 
his reign by clergy who suffered no adequate punishment. A parliament of 
nobles and prelates was convened at Clarendon, which enacted certain "con- 
stitutions" or laws, the most important of which were those limiting and defin- 
ing the power of the pope, and making clergy amenable to the regular secular 
courts. 

At this time the ablest subject in the kingdom was Thomas-a-Becket. He 
rose to be Henry's high chancellor and most trusted minister. A strangely 
romantic tradition associates itself with Thomas-a-Becket's birth. It is told 




HENRY II. 



46 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



that in the reign of Henry I. the citizens of London were amazed by the sight 
of a maiden in eastern dress, who wandered the streets, plaintively uttering the 
word " Gilbert." Certain seafaring men told how she had prevailed on them 
to take her on board their ship in a port of the Holy Land by constandy re- 
peating the word " London." The rude mob pursued her till she came to the 
front of a house occupied by Gilbert-a-Becket, who, with his servant, Richard, 
had just returned from a pilgrimage to Palestine. Richard went out to the 




WARNATTCK CASTLE. 



hunted maiden, who fainted on seeing him. He carried her to the house of 
an Iionorable widow, desiring her to take care of her for his master's sake. 

Meanwhile Gilbert-a-Becket betook himself to the Bishop of London and 
told his story. He related how he and Richard had been captured and made 
slaves to a wealthy emir. He attracted the notice and gained the love of the 
chiefs daughter, who offered to contrive his escape if he would make her his 
wife. Gilbert did escape, but he left the generous maiden behind. She left 
home, riches, and father, and with only these two w'ords — his name and that 
of his city — reached his door. Five other prelates were present when Gilbert 
told his story. One, the Bishop of Chichester, exclaimed that Heaven itself 




MURDEH OF THOMAS-A-BECKET. 



48 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

must have conducted the damsel. All united in urging immediate marriage. 
The next day she was brought to St. Paul's Cathedral and was there baptized 
and married. Next year she gave birth to her distinguished son Thomas. 

Even on the supposition that the story is entirely accurate, Thomas-a- 
Becket was, at any rate, a true-born Englishman on the father's side, who was 
of pure Saxon blood. Being the first of his race who had risen to high office 
since the conquest, the people were proud of him, and reverenced him. He 
himself assumed a state and dignity almost regal. In 1162 he was made 
Archbishop of Canterbury, whereupon, at once renouncing his luxurious habits, 
he assumed an austere and saintly character. He became the champion of 
the church and antagonized Henry's endeavors to subordinate it to law. 
Henry's rage was terrible, and Becket fled to France, visiting Rome to confer 
with the pope ! Both the pope and the King of France took part with the 
archbishop. At length, after two years, reconciliation was effected, and 
Becket returned to England, entering Canterbury amid the plaudits of the 
people. Emboldened, he began to act with the greatest insolence, and 
seemed inclined to renew the war with the king. The Archbishop of York, 
and others whom Becket had excommunicated, repaired to the king, who was 
in Normandy. Henry on hearing their detail of grievances exclaimed, "How 
miserably am I reduced that I cannot have rest by reason of one single priest! 
Is there no one to relieve me?" Four ardent knights at once set out for 
Canterbury, and ordered Becket to absolve the excommunicated persons or 
quit the kingdom. Becket defied them, despising their threats. They retired 
and armed themselves, and when the time of evening service was come, 
backed by their followers, murdered Becket before the altar. A cry of horror 
went up from all Christendom. Henry bent belore the storm. Becket was 
canonized under the title of St. Thomas of Canterbury, and numerous miracles 
were worked at his tomb, which for centuries was a favorite shrine of pious 
pilgrims. Thus the fine old poet Chaucer says: 

"And chiefely from every shire's end 
Of Engleland to Canterbury they wend 
The holy blissful martyr for to seek, 
Who them hath holpen when that they were sick." 

Dearly had Henry to aby the zeal of his knights. Humbling himself, he 
made a pilgrimage to the saint's tomb, alighting from his horse and approach- 
ing it barefoot. The livelong night he passed on his knees at the shrine, 
and, in the morning, placing a scourge in the willing hands of the monks, he 
submitted his back to their bitter discipline. This humiliation gained him 
absolution, and as, on the very day he thus prostrated himself, his army gained 
a victory over the Scots, his people knew he was reconciled to Heaven, while 
the sanctity of St. Thomas shone out clearer than ever. 



ENGLAND. 49 

But a yet more far-reaching event ot Henry's reign was the conquest of 
Ireland, a conquest whose full consequences have scarcely been realized at 
the present day. So soon as Henry ascended the throne he looked with 
cupidity toward Ireland, and, so early as 1156, he received from Pope Adrian 
a bull authorizing him to reduce it. Henry bided his time. Ireland was then 
divided into five kingdoms, Roderic, King of Connaught, being Lord-Para- 
mount. Dermot, King of Leinster, thinking himself wronged by the Lord- 
Paramount, had recourse to Henry for redress. This was just the pretext 
Henry desired, but, not willing to appear personally, he gave Dermot permis- 
sion to apply to his subjects. He appealed to Strongbow, Earl of Pembroke, 
who, on the promise of Eva, Dermot's only daughter, in marriage and the 
succession to his kingdom, set out with a body of men to Dermot's assistance. 
His trained men easily routed the undisciplined Kernes of Ireland, and 
Strongbow espoused Eva, and on Dermot's death became sovereign of 
Leinster, as also of large portions of the adjoining kingdoms, with Henry as 
his superior. When Roderic, at the head of 50,000 men, besieged Pembroke 
in Dublin, the latter put the untrained rabble to flight with great slaughter. 
In 1 172 Henry himself came over and held his Christmas in Dublin, where, 
in a huge palace of wicker-work, he entertained the Irish princes who ac- 
knowledged themselves his vassals. Ineffably better would it have been for 
England had the " Wild Irishry " driven Pembroke and his crew of adventurers 
into the Irish Sea. No such Pandora's bo.x, replete with woes, was ever 
presented to man as this gift of Ireland by the English pope, Adrian Break- 
spear, to England's king, Henry Plantagenet. 

Henry could rule a kingdom : he could not rule his own family. He had 
five sons, and these unnatural children repeatedly rose against their father. 
In one attempt, in 1 173, they were abetted by William, King of Scotland, who 
invaded England. It was just when Henry was doing penance at Becket's 
tomb. King William was captured and not released till he owned himself 
vassal to the English crown. It was on this acknowledgment that PIdward I. 
afterwards based his claim to the sovereignty of Scotland. 

Worn out by the continued ingratitude and turbulence of his boys, Henry 
retired to the castle of Chinon, France. There, after a treaty of peace on 
account of their last rising had been signed, the king, who was sick in bed, 
asked to see a list of the rebels he had pardoned. The first name that met 
his eyes was that of John, his favorite child. Heart-broken he turned his face 
to the wall, with these words : " Now let the world go as it will, I am done with 
it, " Thus he died in 1 189. " Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 

Henry was not a faithful husband. He had a mistress, Rosamond Cliftbrd, 

named from her beauty "The Fair Rosamond." To save her from his queen, 

Eleanor, he placed her in a bower in the centre of a maze at Woodstock, to 

which access could be gained only by following a clue of thread. Eleanor 

4 



50 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



got possession of the clue, and, threading the mazes of the labyrinth, came on 
poor Rosamond, and compelled her to drink a bowl of poison. The desire to 
avenge the wrongs of their mother no doubt instigated Henry's boys to 
rebel against their father. 



RICHARD CCEUR DE LION. 1 189— 1 199. 

Henry was succeeded by his son, Richard of the Lion Heart, the hero of 
the romance of English history. 

The result of the first crusade had been the capture of Jerusalem. But 
the Saracens, under their great leader Saladin, had lately recaptured the Holy 
City and all the rest of Palestine, save a few towns on the coast. A grand 
crusade was organized, and Richard of England and Philip of France agreed 
to unite their forces and fight in company. The place of rendezvous was 
Messina, in Sicily, and while there, Richard espoused the daugliter of the King 
of Navarre. The other participants in the crusade were already in the Holy 




GATHERING OF CRUSADERS 



Land. Richard's advent was the signal for renewed effort. He knew no fear 
himself and taught others to despise it. He found a numerous Christian 
army, among which were the French troops, besieging Acre, while Saladin 
was at hand with a great force to relieve it. Richard captured Acre, and 
defeated Saladin at Ascalon, performing miracles of valor, and was pressing 
on to the Holy" City, when dissensions, instigated by Philip, so sickened 
Richard, that, after making a peace with Saladin, by which free access to the 
Holy Places was guaranteed to Christian pilgrims, he reluctantly turned his 
face homeward. 

The terror of his name endured for centuries in Palestine. The Arab 



ENGLAND. 



61 



chiefs used to chide their starting horses with the question, "Dost thou tliink 
that yonder is the Malek Rii<: (King Richard) ? " The Saracen mother was wont 
to still her crying child by threats that Malek Rik would take it, or to hush it 
to sleep with a lullaby assuring it that the terrible Richard would not get it. 

Richard had made many enemies in Palestine by his arrogance, plain- 
speaking, and roughness. Among these was Leopold, Duke of Austria, whose 
banner he had thrown down and trampled in the dirt. Sailing homeward, 
Richard was shipwrecked in the Adriatic, and became a captive of this very 
duke. The Emperor of Germany caused Coeur-de-Lion to be given up to 
him and held him prisoner, transferring him from one imperial castle to an- 
other, the object being to secure a great 
ransom. There is a romantic story associ- 
ated witli Richard's captivity. All tidings 
of their beloved king were lost to tht^ 
English. One Blondel, a musician and a 
favorite of Richard's, went from city to city 
and castle to castle in search of him, loncj 



in vain. He came one evening to a castle 




RICHARD I. (CCEUR-DE-LION). 



in which there lay an unknown prisoner of 

note. Blondel played and sang the first 

verse of a song which he and Richard, in 

happier days, had composed together. 

Forthwith the second verse sounded out 

from the castle's grated window. Blondel's 

mission was accomplished : he had found 

him whom he came to seek. He hurried 

home to England, and reported the vast ransom required for the king's 

delivery. The people grudged no sacrifice. Ladies gave up their jewels, 

the churches melted down their plate. Richard approached London amid 

a nation's plaudits. On entering the city the citizens in their joy made 

such profuse display of wealth that a German noble, who accompanied him 

home, half bitterly said : " My King, had our master but dreamed of the riches 

of England, thy ransom would have been four times greater." 

When Philip of PVance heard that the Lion-heart was again free, he wrote 
Richard's traitorous brother John, who had tried to steal the kingdom from him : 
"Take care of yourself, for the devil is loose." John prepared to flee ; but, at 
his brother's command, remained, and on meeting him threw himself at his feet. 
When Richard was asked by his mother to pardon John : " I forgive him," 
he said, "and hope I shall as easily forget his injuries as he will my pardon." 

The death of Richard was valiant and romantic as his life. His vassal, 
the Viscount of Limoges, had found a treasure and sent Richard a part. He 
demanded the whole, and on his demand being refused, besieged the viscount's 



52 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



castle. One day, while he was viewing the castle, Bertrand de Gourdon shot at 
him with his cross-bow and wounded him mortally. The castle was taken and 
all in it put to death, save Gourdon. The king summoned him into his pres- 
ence and asked what he had done that he should desire to slay him. "You 
killed my father and my two brothers, I have revenged them ; do with me as 
you will." Struck by the undaunted reply, the king ordered him a sum of 
money and his liberty. 



KING JOHN LACKLAND. (1199— 1216.) 

One grand event marks the reign of this mean monarch. This was the 
wringing from him of Magna Charta, the charter of the English people's 

liberties. Thus does God out of 
seeming evil educe good. We 
shall briefly recite how this was 
effected. 

The heir to the crown of Eng- 
land was Arthur, son of Rich- 
ard's next brother Geoffrey. The 
boy being only twelve years old, 
Richard left the crown to John. 
But when Arthur was fifteen, he 
was encouraged by Philip of 
France to make war in support 
of his claim. Being defeated he 
was confined in a castle on the 
banks of the Seine in Normandy. 
There, one night, he was awak- 
ened at midnight, and ordered to 
enter a boat in which sat the king 
and one attendant. Arthur's 
presaging heart foretold him 
his fate. He threw himself 
on his knees and begged 
pitifully for his life. In the 
words of the old ballad, it is 
vain " to beg for grace trom a 
graceless face." He was seized 
by the hair and a dagger buried 
in his heart. John had even 
brought a large stone with him into the boat, and weighting the body with that, 
sunk it in the Seine. 




JOHN SWEARING VENGEANCE AGAINST 
THE BARONS. 



ENGLAND. 53 

This deed of barbarity cost John Normandy and most of his French do- 
minions. Phihp summoned him to answer for the murder. He refused to 
appear, and in his absence was condemned to death, and all his territories 
declared forfeited. Such was the horror felt at his crime that, on Philip en- 
tering John's hereditary territory, every place was surrendered without a blow, 
and naught of France was left to him save Guienne. 

We of the present day cannot appreciate what it was in the dark ages for 
a sovereign to strive with the pope. Into such a strife John fell over the ap- 
pointment of an archbishop of Canterbury. The pope wisely nominated a na- 
tive Englishman, Stephen Langton, for the office. John, Norman at heart and 
loving none of the English race, resisted obstinately. The result was that the 
land was laid under papal interdict. The comlorts of religion were withdrawn ; 
the churches were closed; "no knell was tolled for the dead, for the dead lay 
unburied ; no merry peals welcomed the bridal procession, for no couple could 
be joined in wedlock." John retaliated on the church, and e.xcommunication 
followed, and finally a papal bull of deposition. No man owed the king duty; 
any man might slay him. Philip of France was commissioned to execute the 
pope's decrees. John, craven-like, succumbed, for his people had fallen from 
him, and on his knees before the papal legate acknowledged himself the pope's 
vassal and his kingdom a fief of Rome. 

Black hate lay in John's heart towards the barons who had failed him and 
used his extremity to restrain the too enormous power of the crown. Three 
years of outrage on his part brought matters to a crisis. The English Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury read to the barons the charter of Henry I., and they 
swore on the altar to make war on John till he had granted them one yet fuller. 
John found himself face to face with a people in arms. He was in a deadly 

plight. 

" Tlie color of the king did come and go 
Between his purpose and his conscience." 

But the barons were inexorable. A meeting was agreed on ; the time, 15th 
June, 1215; the place, the broad, smooth, green meadow of Runnymede, on 
the banks of the Thames, spreading out fair and fertile beneath the heights 
of Windsor, crowned by its ancient castle. There the Magna Charta was 
spread forth and signed — the great charter of the liberties of the English 
people ; in which the serfs, who still constituted the bulk of the people, were 
for the first time recocrnized as havingf rights. The original charter is still 
to be seen, bearing John's great seal, in the British Museum. 

Next year John died, after a wicked reign of eighteen years. 



54 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



HENRY III. 



I2I6 — 1272. 



Henry, John's son, was only ten years of age at the death of his father. 
The early years of his reign present few points of interest. He grew up 
devoid of the grosser vices of his father, but he had more of the southern 

troubadour than the stern northern war- 
rior in his composition. He thought 
little of affairs, and recked not of extor- 
tions, but loved to indulge extravagant 
tastes for splendor and gayety, in which 
his youthful queen encouraged him. 
He loved music, poetry, romance, sculpt- 
ure, and painting. In his palace fun, 
frolic, songs, pageants, and dancing were 
the order of th6 day. A babel of lan- 
guages — Italian, Provencal, Gascon, Lat- 
in, French, English — says the "Came- 
os of History" from which we quote 
— were spoken at his court. Minstrels 
were there of all nationalities. There was 
Richard, the king's harper, who had forty 
shillings a year and a tun of wine. 
There was Henry of Avranches, the arch-poet, who wrote a song on the rus- 
ticity of Cornishmen, to which a Cornishman, Michael Blampayne, replied by 
describing him as having " the legs of a sparrow, the mouth of a hare, the nose 
of a dog, the teeth of a mule, the brow of a calf, the head of a bull." There 
was Ribault, the troubadour, who in a fit of madness imagined himself rightful 
king, and nearly killed Henry when cutting the royal bed to pieces with his 
sword, till secured by the action of Margaret Bisset, one of the queen's ladies. 
There was the half-witted jester, with whom the king and his brother Aymer 
might be seen playing like boys, and pelting each other with turf His palace 
was gorgeously decorated with tapestry, paintings, and sculpture. One piece 
of jewelry is specially mentioned — a silver ewer for perfumes, in the shape of 
a peacock, the tail set with precious stones. 

There was soon an end to Henry's treasures, and he had recourse to un- 
constitutional exactions. Like several other weak kings, James I. for example, 
he had extravagant notions about the divine right of kings, believing that 

" Not all the water in the rough rude sea 
• Can wash the balm from an anointed king." 




HENRY II 



Had he been allowed his will he would have been tyrannous. One of his 



ENGLAND. 55 

attempts was to subordinate the charter to royal prerogative. As from the 
oppression of John sprang the Magna Charta, so from Henry's faithlessness 
sprang the English House of Commons. Upon the occasion of Henry de- 
manding a supply of money the clergy deputed the primate and certain bish- 
ops to remonstrate with him. At the conference, the charter was read aloud, 
all the prelates standing with lighted tapers in their hands. At the close of 
the reading, sentence of excommunication was pronounced against whoever 
should violate it, the tapers being at the same moment cast on the ground and 
extinguished, the primate solemnly saying: " May the soul of him who incurs 
this sentence stink in hell." The king, laying his hand on his heart, replied : 
"So help me God, I shall observe and keep these things as I am a Christian 
man, a kniofht, and a kine crowned and anointed." Yet no sooner was the 
ceremony over than the promise was gone from his mind. 

It was now apparent that stronger measures were needed, and a confed- 
eracy of nobles was formed, with Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, at the 
head. After sundry negotiations an action took place between the forces of 
the king and those under Leicester at Lewes, Sussex, in which the royalists 
were defeated and Prince Edward, Henry's son, taken prisoner. 

Leicester was now in effect sovereign of England, carrying the king about 
with him, and making what regulations he chose in his name. In 1265 he 
directed the sheriffs " to elect and return two knights for each county, two 
citizens for each city, and two burgesses for each burgh in the county." This 
is interesting to every student as exhibiting the origin of the House ot Com- 
mons. 

Prince Edward at length escaped, and raised an army which met that of 
Leicester at Evesham, in Worcestershire, defeating it with terrible slaughter. 
Of all the barons and knights in Leicester's army only ten remained alive, the 
great baron being struck down after demanding quarter. 

After the defeat and death of Leicester all opposition to royal authority 
was at an end. Prince Edward, whose nature was essentially warlike, took 
advantaee of the calm to head a crusade in the east, where he renewed the 
fame of Richard the lion-hearted. A romantic story is told in connection with 
this crusade. The Prince of Jaffa professed a desire to embrace Christianity, 
and sent one day an envoy to Edward, who was reclining in his tent during the 
heat of the day. Springing suddenly on the prince the Saracen attempted to 
plunge a dagger in his heart. Edward received the blow on his arm, and then 
killed the ruffian with his own weapon. But the dagger was poisoned, and 
Edward must die unless the venom was extracted, and who would risk a life 
to save that of the heroic prince ? Eleanor of Castile, the prince's spouse, with 
true wifely devotion, perilled her own life to save that of her husband. Kneel- 
ing by the side of his couch she sucked the poison from the wound. Both 
were spared ; he to be a loving husband, she to be an honored wife. 



56 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Henry III. died after a reign of fifty-five years. There have been but three 
English sovereigns who reigned over fifty years — Henry III., Edward III., 
George III. Queen Victoria approaches this term. 

We have already indicated the dawn of English literature in connection 
with Caedmon, Alfred, and the venerable Bede. We have now to record the 
dawn of English science. Roger Bacon, a monk of 0.\ford, and the most 
enlightened man of his age, flourished during the reign of Henry III. He 
applied his learning chiefly to making useful discoveries, and invented the 
telescope, microscope, and many other mathematical and astronomical instru- 
ments ; discovered the errors in the calendar and gave data for rectifying them 
that come very near truth. His most famed discovery is that of gunpowder, 
but he did not contemplate it as an instrument of destruction. Like Galileo, 
and other pioneers of science, he suffered persecution, having been twice im- 
prisoned by the church, the last imprisonment lasting ten years. On account 
of his extraordinary knowledge he received the name of the " Doctor 
Mirabilis." 



EDWARD LONGSHANKS. 



1272 — 1307. 



Edward, son of a weak father, was one of England's great kings, eminent 
alike in war and statesmanship. 

The Welsh still regarded themselves as the rightful owners of all Eng- 
land, and their native bards sung of the glories of the days of Arthur and his 
round table and kept alive the national spirit. Llewellyn, their prince, refused 

to do homage to Edward, who, marching into 
Wales, compelled him to submit. But their bards 
recalled a prediction of their national prophet, 
Merlin, and in 1282 inspired the people to rise 
against their rulers. Edward, a second time, 
led a host into the mountains, and, Llewellyn 
having been slain, finally annexed Wales to 
England. His good queen had accompanied 
him on the campaign, and at Caernarvon Castle 
gave birth to a son, called, from his birthplace, 
Prince of Wales. Edward told the chiefs that, 
if they would come to Caernarvon, he would give 
them a prince who never spoke a word of any 
language but their own. They came, and the 
king descended to them bearing his baby in his 
arms. A Welsh nurse was given the infant, so 
that the first words he spoke were Welsh. Thus was Wales reconciled to 
English rule. Ever since, the heir to the English crown bears the title of 
Prince of Wales. 




EDWARD I. (LONGSHANKS). 



58 GOLDEN* TREASURY. 

Far different was the task Edward set himself when he endeavored to sub- 
jugate Scotland, and fortunate was it for England that he failed. This epi- 
sode, however, falls more under Scotch than English history and is relegated 
thither accordingly. 

While occupied with the attempt to conquer Scotland, Edward lost his 
hereditary duchy of Guienne in France. Some dispute having arisen about 
the ceremony of doing homage, Edward surrendered the duchy into the hands 
of Philip, on the promise of receiving it back. Philip once having got it into 
his hands would not restore it, and Edward was too busy with his Scottish 
war to reclaim it. 

One of the worst traits in Edward's character was his relentless severity 
to such enemies as fell into his power, and his harshness to the Jews. The 
cruel death inflicted on Wallace, the Scottish patriot-hero, and the execution 
of 300 Jews, and the banishment of 16,000 from the country, with only money 
enough to carry them abroad (Edward seizing all the rest of their property) 
are stains on his memory. 

Never did the martial spirit of England rise to a higher pitch than under 
this king. Every castle had its tilting-yard, where the young men practised 
all the exercises and manoeuvres of war and chivalry. Riding at the ring and 
mock combats were of daily occurrence. But the tournament, in which fair 
ladies looked on, while knights rode against each other with sharpened lances, 
was the crowning spectacle. A smile and a scarf bestowed by the Queen of 
Beauty was held ample guerdon for risk of life and limb. These meetings 
were usually proclaimed for a long time beforehand that knights from a dis- 
tance might be able to attend. Kings and princes, queens, and the wives and 
daughters of the nobles were among the spectators. Sometimes the combat 
was "a I'outrance," or to the death of one of the combatants. The yeomen 
and common people had their sports also, among which may be specified 
archery, foot-ball, leaping, vaulting, and the like athletic exercises. About 
Ciiristmas time mummers used to go about in quaint disguises dancing and 
capering to the sound of pipe and tabor. Bull-baiting and bear-baiting were 
later enjoyments. 

EDWARD II. 1307— 1327. 

The reien of this sovereign is litde more than a detail of follies on the 
part of the king and violence on that of his nobles. He was much un- 
der the influence of favorites. In the beginning of his reign a worthless 
person, named Gaveston, occupied this position. Twice was he expelled the 
kingdom by the nobles, whom his jnsolence and sneers had irritated. On 
making his reappearance a third time he was seized and carried to Warwick 
Castle. There it was debated what should be dovie with him. A single remark 



ENGLAND. 



59 



by a noble sealed his doom : " You have caught the fox : if you let him go, you 
will have to hunt him again." He was forthwith carried to a height by the 
banks of the pleasant Avon and beheaded. 

While Edward and his nobles were wasting time in fruidess strife, Robert 
Bruce, now King of Scodand, was capturing one strong place after another. 
Finally, on the 24th day of June, 13 14, was fought the decisive battle of Ban- 
nockburn, in which the English were utterly routed. This batde secured the 
independence of Scotland. 

The remaining days of Edward were miserable indeed. He fell under 
the influence of new favorites (father and son, named Spenser), who ulti- 
mately shared the fate of Gaveston. His wife deserted him and went with her 
son, Edward, to the court of her brother Charles, King of France. There she 
formed an attachment for Roger Mortimer, who had fled to France to escape 

punishment for his enmity to the Spensers. 
She arranged a marriao-e between her 
son, Edward, and Philippa, daughter of 
William, Count of Hainault — one of the 
few redeeming events of this dismal 
reign. Furnished with troops by Wil- 
liam, she returned to England and raised 
^^ the standard of revolt, with the object 
of gaining supremacy for herself and 
Mortimer. The king fled, but being 
^$^ shipwrecked near Swansea, surrendered 
and was hurried to a felon's prison in 
Berkeley Castle. 

In 1327 Parliament declared the 
crown vacant, and young Edward was 
crowned, with the title of Edward III. 
One autumn nijrht shrieks of anguish 
rang out from the gloomy walls of Berkeley Castle. Next morning the 
citizens of Bristol ■Cvere invited to come and behold the body of the unhappy 
second Edward. No outward marks of violence were seen, but the features 
were distorted as if with agony. No one doubted that Mortimer was the 
author of his death, and that it was produced by introducing a red-hot iron, 
through a tube, into his intestines. 

This reien is notable as being the first in which Parliament asserted its 
right to depose an unworthy king. 




tDWARD II. 



<?0 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



EDWARD III. (of Windsor). 1327— 1377. 

Edward was fourteen years of age when he ascended the throne, and had 
one of the longest and most briUiant reigns in the history of England. The 
various characters of the English sovereigns constitute a strange comment on 
the doctrine of heredity. Some of her worst kings were sons of worthy sires ; 
some of her greatest the offsprings of weak and worthless fathers. Of the 
latter class was the third Edward. 

A council of nobles was appointed to administer the government during 
the king's minority. Practically the queen and her favorite, Mortimer, held 
the government in their hands. Mortimer's insolence exceeded that of the 




THE TOWER OF LONDON. 



Gavestons and Spensers and drew on him the hate of the nobles. The Scots, 
under the powerful Earl of Douglas, began that system of border warfare 
which harassed England down till the union. The young king raised an army 
and went to meet the marauders, but his heavy-armed soldiers were little fit to 
cope with the light-armed and well-mounted Scottish moss-troopers. Edward 
was forced to retire from lack of supplies, and the result was the treaty of 
Northampton, signed in 1328, in which the independence of Scotland was 
fully acknowledged. 

Already galled by Mortimer's arrogance, the proud barons, ill able to 



ENGLAND. 



61 



Stomach thfs new humiliation which they ascribed to him, determined to rid 
themselves of him. The king readily entered into their schemes, and, being 
now eighteen years of age, took the government into his own hands. A Par- 
liament was summoned at Nottingham, and Mortimer and the queen took up 
their abode in the castle. One night the king and a party of friends gained 
entrance into Mortimer's chamber by a secret passage. The queen heard 
the door burst open, and called out from her bed in an adjoining apartment: 

" Sweet son ! Fair son ! Spare my 
noble Mortimer." In vain. He was 
made prisoner, tried by Parliament, 
condemned for the murder of the late 
king, and hanged at Tyburn. 

As Edward I. was called " Hammer 
of the Scots," the third Edward might, 
with equal justice, be termed the 
" Hammer of the French." 

Believing himself to be rightful heir 
to the French throne on grounds which 
will be better shown under the history 
of France, and irritated at the French 
king on account of the countenance he 
showed to his enemies of Scotland, 
Edward determined to enforce his 
claim, and his people supported him 
with enthusiasm. Thus began the 
hundred years of war witli France, which, glorious as it was to England's 
courage and prowess, ended in her losing all her dominions in France save 
the single city of Calais. 

England won her first great sea-fight off Sluys (1340), King Edward sitting 
on board his ship in a black velvet dress, while his hardy sailors showed the 
mettle which was in the future to characterize the Jack Tars of Britannia. It 
was probably here that warlike use was first made of Roger Bacon's dis- 
covery. 

This defeat was so unexpected that no one durst tell King Philip of it. At 
last the court jester was prevailed on to break the news to him in his own 
way. "Ah, what dastardly cowards these English are ! " said the fool, in 
Philip's hearing. " How so ? " asked the king. " Because at Sluys they dared 
not jump into the sea, as our brave men have done." The king demanded an 
explanation, and learned from his courtiers the disastrous story. 

The earliest conflict in this great war was Crecy (August, 1346), where 
Edward, called, from the color of his armor, the Black Prince, won his spurs, 
at the age of sixteen. The grand distinction between the armies of England 




EDWARD 



62 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

and France was that the EngUsh army was composed mainly of yeomen — men 
athletic, well fed, drilled to warlike exercises, enthusiastically loyal, and the 
finest archers in the world ; while the armies of France were still those of the 
Middle Ages, made up of mailed knights and hordes of ill-fed, despised, and 
untrained serfs. It is thus we are to account for the facility with which small 
English armies put to flight great French hosts. At Creqy the English were 
but thirty thousand strong, while the French were four times as numerous, yet 
young Edward did not hesitate to offer it battle. Here, for the first time, the 
famed Genoese cross-bowmen and the English archers encountered each other, 
to the total discomfiture of the former. The battle is thus graphically de- 
scribed in " Cameos of the History of England," a work we have already 
acknowledged our obligations to. After telling us that the English, after par- 
taking of dinner, sat down in order, sheltering themselves from the rain that 
was falling, with their bows beside them carefully protected, while the Genoese, 
w^ho had marched eighteen miles, were ordered, on arriving on the ground, at 
once to begin the battle, it goes on to say that, on the approach of the latter, 
" the English yeomen quietly rose up, each man in his place, so that as they 
stood their battalions took the form of a harrow, in squares like a chess-board. 
Each donned his steel cap, and drew his bowstring from the case where it had 
been kept dry. The Genoese ' leapt forward with a fell cry,' hoping to frighten 
their enemies ; finding the English stood still, they hooted again and came 
forward ; then with a third cry discharged such of their cross-bows as were not 
too wet to use. Then came the arrows from the 2,000 long bows, piercing 
heads, arms, and through cuirasses; and, mingled with these, came large balls 
of iron, propelled from the hill above with sounds like the retreating thun- 
der of the storm, doing deadly execution, and terrifying men and horses. The 
Genoese gave back, but behind them were the brilliant and impatient knights 
of France ' who burned to be down upon the English.' But when they came 
within the flight of these deadly shafts they brooked them as little as did the 
Genoese ; their horses capered and curveted and became unmanageable, and 
the wild Welshmen rushing down with their knives killed them in great num- 
ber." On their flight the first English line-of-batde, led by the prince, was 
charged by a large body of cavalry under the French king, who broke through 
the archers, and the Earl of Warwick, trembling for the boy, despatched a 
knight to the king — who was watching the fight from the top of a windmill — 
to solicit him to send aid to his son. "Is my son hurt?" asked the hardy 
veteran. " No, sire, but hard-pressed." " Tell him he shall have no aid from 
me: let the boy win his spurs." The result was the total overthrow of the 
French. John, the blind King of Bohemia, who fought on the French side, 
was slain, and his coat of arms (crest three ostrich feathers, motto Ich dien) has 
ever since been borne by the heir apparent to the English throne. 

The subsequent events of this struggle belong rather to French than 



ENGLAND. 63 

English history'. Immediately after the victory of Cregy Edward captured 
Calais, which remained English for more than two hundred years. The noble 
devotion of its six burghers, who offered their own lives in ransom for those 
of the garrison and citizens, and the generous intervention of Queen Philippa, 
who on her knees supplicated their lives from the king, will be detailed in its 
proper place. After Cre^y the young prince conquered nearly the whole of 
the south of France, where he spent the greater part of his life. During the 
siege of Calais, England was invaded by David, King of Scots, who, being 
defeated at Neville's Cross, was taken prisoner. In 1356 took place the 
famous fight at Poictiers, between the Black Prince and King John of France, 
wherein the disparity of numbers was still greater than at Crec;y, and the 
victory yet more decisive, the French king being captured. Thus two kings 
were prisoners in England at the same time. The treatment of both captives 
was generous and chivalric. Both were magnificently entertained at the newly- 
built castle of Windsor, and a grand tournament was held in their honor, 
in which both exhibited their knightly attainments. After a captivity of 
eleven years, David of Scotland was ransomed. Terms had been previously 
arranged for the ransom of John, but on his returning to France his nobles 
made difficulties about raising the money, whereupon the king, saying, " If 
honor were banished from the rest of the world, she should find an abode 
in the heart of kings," turned his face from them and went back to his cap- 
tivity in England, where he died eight years after Poictiers. 

The gallant Black Prince was induced to enter Spain on behalf of Peter 
the Cruel of Castile, against whom his subjects had revolted. He fought 
bravely as ever, but Peter shamelessly broke his engagements. The prince 
returned to France in deep decline and bankrupt, and shortly died. The Eng- 
lish provinces being left without a defender, were speedily, one after another, 
recovered by the French. His father survived the prince but a few months. 

The reign of Edward was notable for many things besides feats of war. 

The stately palace of Windsor was built, every county being required to 
furnish a rated number of masons, carpenters, etc. The noble Order of the 
Garter was instituted. At a ball the garter chanced to drop from the stocking 
of the Countess of Salisbury. The king courteously picked it up and gal- 
landy bound it on his own leg. Seeing the courtiers smile, he uttered the 
words which became the motto of the order: " Honi soit qui mal y pense " 
(Shame be to him who thinks ill thereof) — a terse commentary on the text: 
"To the pure all things are pure." This seemingly trivial circumstance was 
the occasion of founding the noblest of all England's orders of knighthood. 
The first institution of twenty-six knights, consisdng of nobles of the highest 
rank in England, was celebrated at Windsor in 1344, on the day sacred to St. 
George, the patron saint of England, and within St. George's chapel at Wind- 
sor Castle, then rising into glory and beauty under the hands of the skilful 



64 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



architect, William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester. Three hundred ladies, 
attired in blue velvet mantles and the crimson kirtle of the order, graced the im- 
posing ceremony. Every knight had a historic name. At the head stood the 
king himself and next him the gallant IMack Prince ; the remaining twenty- 
four knights following in order. Each wore the silken garter at his knee, the 
" robe of heavenly blue," a kirtle of crimson, and on the left shoulder the cross 
of St. George ; each as admitted swore to fight for God, St. George, and the 
king ; and each hung his banner, rich with armorial bearings, over the stall in 
the chapel where he knelt and joined in the prayers day by day offered up for 
the " Most Noble Order of the Garter." The number of knights was after- 




WINDSOR CASTLE FROM THE RIVER. 



Vizards raised to forty, and the order is still the highest honor in the power of 
the Enelish crown to bestow. One decoration alone contends with " the Gar- 
ter" for pre-eminence in the eyes of England's bravest warriors. This is the 
simple Victoria cross, conferred for personal prowess on great commanders 
and simple privates alike. Ever since the conquest Latin had been the 
lancfuaee of literature and the church, French that of the court and of law, 
while the yeomen and peasantry held to the English tongue of their fathers. 
Now all the people — Britons, Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Danes, and Normans — - 
were becoming amalgamated and blended into one English people, and Eng- 
lish was becoming, accordingly, the national speech. By the end of the reign i^ 




CHAUCER: CHARACTERISTIC SCENES OF HIS TIME. 



(6i) 



efi THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

was taught in the schools, and in 1375 a statute was passed enacting its use 
in courts of law. The methods of war were changed. Hitherto the main 
reliance had been on knights armed cap-a-pie. Wallace and Bruce had taught 
England the value of foot-soldiers, and Cre(,y and Poictiers were won by small 
armies mainly composed of her unrivalled yeomen-archers. Roger Bacon's 
new explosive, gunpowder, was first used for artillery purposes in this reign. 
Hitherto Parliament had consisted of but one house. It was now divided into 
two, the peers and prelates constituting the House of Lords, and the represen- 
tatives of the people, the House of Commons, where they could deliberate and 
resolve unawed by barons and church dignitaries. We have here, then, the 
origin of that branch of Parliament which really sways the destinies of Eng- 
land. This reign saw the rising of the "Morning Star of the Reformation," 
John Wickliffe, whose influence on the future of England, intellectually, socially, 
and spiritually cannot be overestimated. Although much of his work falls under 
a subsequent reign, for the sake of connection we give a very brief view of it 
as a whole here. Born in Yorkshire, in 1324, he studied in Oxford for the 
priesthood. Taking his degree in 1363, he began forthwith to read lectures 
on divinity in which anti-popish views were first expounded. Appointed 
parish priest of Lutterworth, Leicestershire, in 1374, he continued his life- 
work of opposition to the papacy. In the struggle maintained by Edward 
and his Parliament against papal aggression, he supported the king powerfully 
with his pen, denouncing the pope as "Antichrist." Persecution followed, but 
all hostile proceedings only served to make him a more thorough reformer. 
In 1378 he entered on his great work of translating the Scriptures into Eng- 
lish, and circulating them among the people, with the result of not only en- 
lightening them spiritually, but also of powerfully advancing the spread of the 
English language. The seed he sowed soon brought forth fruit. The Lol- 
lards, as his disciples were called, were found not only among the poor but in 
the church, the castle, and even on the throne. His work done, he died, worn 
out with toil and harassment, in 1384. " Being dead, he yet speaketh." 

To this and the succeeding reign belongs also Geoffrey Chaucer, the 
"Father of English poetry." Born in 1324, evidently of gentle blood, he is 
said to have studied both at Oxford and Cambridge. He was attached to 
the court, and in 1359 was with the army of invasion in France, where he was 
captured. Ransomed by the king, he married one of the ladies of the chamber 
of the q_ueen. Later he held several appointments of honor and profit, and in 
1386 sat in Parliament as one of the knights of the shire of Kent. He was 
author of numerous poetical works, but the " Canterbury Tales," wherein are. 
seen " all that stirring and gaily apparelled time, as in some magic mirror," 
form the durable monument to his memory. " He was buried in Westminster 
Abbey, the first of the illustrious file of poets whose ashes rest in that great 
national sanctuary." 



ENGLAND. 67 

In this reign the wages of a worlcingman was but three pence a day, yet in 
some respects he was better off than his modern representative, for this sum 
would purchase as much meat as four shillings or a dollar now. His cottage 
presented a degree of plenty and cheertulness not met with at present among 
the agricultural laborers. Performances, called Mysteries and Miracle plays, 
in which the subjects were taken from the legends of the saints, Scripture his- 
tory, and the passion of our Lord, were often given, generally by travelling 
actors. The court-yards of most great houses had galleries round them, for 
convenience in witnessing these exhibitions. Of tournaments and other amuse- 
ments we have already spoken. The best houses of the towns-people were 
rough wooden buildings with latticed windows, and their bedsteads were closed 
like a child's crib. The shops or stores were stalls or booths covered, and 
ranged in rows along the streets, like the stalls in some of our older markets. 
The principal manufacture was woollen, England being famous for the abun- 
dance and excellence of its wool. Bakers, brewers, dyers, and weavers were 
almost all women. Learning had as yet made little progress beyond the 
church and the cloister, for Edward was long dead ere Wickliffe's translation 
appeared to arouse the people with a thirst for reading. 

We have been thus comparatively minute in regard to the leading events 
and characteristics of this reign as we regard it as the transition period be- 
tween the Middle Ages and modern times. New institutions were inau- 
gurated ; new modes of thought and new ideas were born and disseminated. 
Medievalism is behind us : the England of to-day begins to take shape. 



RICHARD IL 1377— 1399. 

Richard was son of the Black Prince and no sovereign ever ascended the 
throne of whom greater things were expected. He verified the remark we 
have already made, that some of the weakest kings were sons of great fathers. 

But orreat events often distinoruish weak reisfns. Richard's reien is mem- 
orable for the fact that in it commenced, in overt form, that struggle which in 
one shape or another has continued unabated to the present day — the 
struggle, namely, of poverty against wealth, of natural right against privilege, 
of the oppressed against the oppressor ; in short, of labor against capital. 

" Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son. 
Though baffled oft is ever won." 

A poll-tax of a shilling a head (equal to sixteen times that amount now) was 
imposed on every person over fifteen. The insolence of a collector to a girl 
under age, the daughter of a tiler named Wat, ^ irritated the father that he 



68 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Struck the villain dead. He did more: he roused the common people of his 
county, Kent, and led them, armed with scythes, flails, and sticks, towards 
London, people flocking to them in thousands by the way. By the time they 
reached London it is said they numbered 300,000. At Blackheath, a priest, 
John Ball, preached to them, taking- for his te.\t a popular rhyme: 

" When Adam delved, and Eve span. 
Who was then the gentleman?" 

He taught them that all men were naturally equal, and advocated the doing 
away with nobles, bishops, judges, and lawyers. One bad feature of a mob is 
that worthless characters always associate themselves with it with evil intent. 
This mob was no exception. The houses of the gentry were plundered and 
many people killed. Yet in London itself the great mass — the real villagers — 
seem to have acted with wonderful moderation. As evidence of this it is told 
that a man who tried to secrete a silver cup he had stolen was thrown into the 
river. Their great desire was to see the king and lay their grievances before 
him. Richard, who was but sixteen years of age, acted with more spirit and 
discretion than he ever again manifested. With a few unarmed men he went 
in his barge to Mile-end, where 60,000 were assembled, and gendy asked what 

they wanted. The answer was," Free- 
dom for ourselves and our children." 

He granted their prayer, and thirty 
clerks were set to work to write 
charters of freedom, which, being given 
to all who came forward to claim them, 
the better part of the mob quietly 
dispersed. But Wat Tyler, with jack 
Straw and the more desperate of the 
party, instead of going to Mile-end to 
meet the king, had broken open the 
tower, murdered the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, and committed other 
atrocities. Next day Wat at the head 
of 20,000 rioters met the king and 
the Mayor of London in Smithfield, 
and riding up to the king behaved 
with such audacity that Walworth 
drew his sword and killed him with one blow. " My friends," said Richard, 
"you have lost your leader. Follow me: I will take his place." Turning his 
horse, he rode gallantly at the head of the multitude into the open fields. 
Meantime a cry had gone forth in London that the king was in the hands of 
the rebels and the citizens rose as one man and flew to the rescue. The mob. 




RICHARD II. 



ENGLAND. 



69 



seized with a panic, fell on their knees imploring pardon. This was granted 
them on condition of their instantly returning to their homes, which they gladly 
did, and the insurrection was at an end. 

We have written thus in detail of this struggle because it has its own in- 
terest and its own lesson for us of the present day. The king prevailed by 
reason of his justice, reasonableness, and manliness. 

Scotland had now firmly established its independence, but there was a 
chronic state of feud and conflict between the Encrlish and Scottish knights and 
barons along the border. Of these the Percies of Northumberland were the 
most distingfuished on the Entrlish side ; the Douglases, on the Scotch. The 
battle of Otterburn, so famous under its ballad-name of Chevychase and which 
Shakespeare thought not unworthy ot his muse, falls under this reign. 

On attaining the age of twenty-two, Richard assumetl entire control of the 
government, dispensing altogether with Pariiar.ient, and relying tor support on 
a standing army of 10,000 men — the first levied in England. His despotic 
courses led to conflict with 
his nobles. One day the 
Dukes of Hereford and Nor- 
folk — both of royal blood — 
while riding in company fell 
into discourse regarding Rich- 
ard's character. Norfolk de- 
clared him to be unworthy 
of credit, and Hereford de- 
nounced Norfolk as a traitor. 
Norfolk brought a counter 
charge of disloyalty against 
Hereford. A court of chivalry 
decided that the matter should 
be left to the judgment of God, by wager of battle. On the day appointed the 
combatants appeared in the lists. They sat with lances in rest, awaiting the 
signal for onset, when Richard threw down his truncheon and forbade the 
fight, passing sentence of banishment on both — on Norfolk, for life; on 
Hereford, for ten years. 

Hereford went to France, and while he was there his father, John of 
Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle and the most powerful man in all 
England, died. Hereford (now Duke of Lancaster) claimed his estates; but 
the king, on the pretext that an exile could hold no land, seized them for him- 
self. Lancaster knowing that discontent was all but universal resolved to 
assert his ripfhts. He landed in England durinof the kino-'s absence in Ireland. 
Nobles and people flocked to his standard, and he reached London at the 
head of 60,000 men. His uncle, the Duke of York, had raised 40,000 to oppose 




COSTUMES OF RICHARD II. 'S TIME. 



70 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

him, but, on discovering the inclination of his own army, made common cause 
with Lancaster. Richard on his arrival in England found himself all but 
deserted and retired to the castle of Conway in Wales. The Earl of North- 
umberland was sent out with a force to try to obtain possession of his person. 
Fearing that if the king saw the force he would make off by sea, Northumber- 
land concealed his troops in a hollow place behind rocks between Flint and 
Conway and went to the castle with but five attendants. Terms were easily 
arranged with the king. Both were insincere ; the king never meant to keep 
the terms, Northumberland wanted only to entrap his person. Yet mass was 
solemnly performed and both swore on the sacrament to observe the con- 
ditions faithfully. They dined together, and set off for Flint. On reaching 
the declivity and seeing pennons, Richard exclaimed : " God of Paradise aid 
me! I am betrayed," and turned his horse's head to return. Northumber- 
land, laying his hand on the bridle, said: " I have promised to convey you to 
Henry of Lancaster, and thither must thou go." The poor king submitted 
with the words : " May the God on whose body you laid your hand to-day 
reward you for this at the last day." Richard was taken to London and 
lodged in the tower, where he was forced to sign his abdication. The instru- 
ment being read in Parliament and his deposition unanimously voted, Lan- 
caster, who was present, claimed the crown, and his claim was at once ad- 
mitted. Richard died, a prisoner, in Pontefract Castle, not without the sus- 
picion that he was starved to death. 

With Richard ended the Plantagenet kings — an able but hard and tyran- 
nical race. But there is a soul of gfoodness even in thingrs evil. Out of 
tyranny comes rebellion ; out of rebellion, often, liberty. 

The events calling for special notice in this reign are — (i.) The emanci- 
pation of the serfs. This had been progressing gradually in previous reigns ; 
notably, the desire of many barons for money to enable them to go on the 
crusades had led them to sell their freedom to many in this degraded con- 
dition. Now Wat Tyler's rebellion in great manner consummated their eman- 
cipation. (2.) The first appearance of a standing army, levied as we have 
seen, not against a foreign foe, but in support of despotism. (3.) The settle- 
ment of a colony of Flemings as weavers in the west of England : west-of- 
England cloth is still ranked among the best. (4.) Richard Whittington 
(famed, with his cat, in nursery literature) was mayor of London in this reign. 
The real Whittington was a knight's son and a great coal-merchant. The cat 
is a myth. (4.) The production of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the earliest 
really great English epic poem ; and the founding of the oldest of England's 
great public schools, namely, that of Winchester. 



ENGLAND. 71 

HOUSE OF LANCASTER. 

HENRY IV. (Bolingbroke). 1399 — 1413. 

Henry was not nearest heir to the throne, and conscious of the weakness 
of his claim he tried to propitiate all parties. The nobles, with the glories of 
Creqy and Poictiers fresh in their memories, fretted over the loss of the 
English possessions in France. To them he held out the glory and the gains 
of another French war. The growth of reformed ideas begfan to alarm the 
church: to it he held out the promise of persecution. Domestic troubles pre- 
vented him from immediately fulfilling his first promise ; there was naught to 
hinder him implementing his second. 

At the king's instigation a statute was enacted dooming every heretic to 
death by burning at the stake. When the Commons House of Parliament 
prayed the barbarous edict might be at least mitigated, Henry replied that he 
wished it had been more severe. A London preacher, by name William 
Salter, was the first to suffer the dread penalty, and Henry enforced his reply 
to the appeal of the Commons by at once signing the death-doom of another 
martyr. 

Wales was a conquered country, but the spirit of the people, inspired by 
their patriot bards who sung the glories of their early heroes, was unsubdued. 
Owen Glendower, a Welsh gentleman, having suffered wrong at the hands of 
an English noble and been refused redress by Parliament, put himself at the 
head of his countrymen and raised the standard of revolt. The belief that 
he was the lineal descendant of their own prince Llewellyn, and that he pos- 
sessed supernatural power, added to his influence. Thrice did Henry lead an 
army into Wales. Thrice he came back baffled. 

" Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made liead 
Against my power ; thrice from the banks of Wye 
And sandy-bottom'd Severn have I sent him 
Bootless home and weather-beaten back." 

The belief in Glendower's supernatural powers was based on the fact that 
he had studied at Oxford and had acquired a knowledge of the science of that 
age. He seems to have utilized this belief for his own purposes. Thus 
tersely and vividly does a Welsh bard celebrate his country's favorite hero, 
and proclaim his hate of the Saxon. 

" Cambria's princely eagle, hail ! of Grwffwd Vychan's noble blood, 
Thy high renown shall never fail, Owen Glendower, great and good. 
Lord of Dwrdws fertile vale, warlike, high-born Owen, hail ! 
Loud fame has told thy gallant deeds ; in every word a Saxon bleeds ; 
Terror and flight together came, obedient to thy mighty name ; 
Death in the van with ample stride, hewed thee a passage deep and wide." 



72 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Douglas, at the head of 10,000 Scots, had made an inroad into England, 
and been defeated at Honiildon by Harry Hotspur and himself taken prisoner. 
The king despatched orders that the captives should not be ransomed. The 
hot-blooded Percies resented the command, liberated the Douglas, and entered 
into alliance with him and Glendower to depose the ungrateful king and crown 
the rightful heir, Edward Mortimer, Earl of March. Douglas and Hotspur 
set out at the head of their forces to join Glendower, but ere effecting a junc- 
tion were met by the king with an equal force at Shrewsbury. It was on this 
day that Prince Henry, the king's son, commenced his career of glory. Young 
Hotspur and Douglas performed prodigies of valor, plunging into the fight in 
search of the king. He had caused several knights to wear armor similar to 
his own, and one after another of these Douglas slew. 

"Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads: 
I am the Douglas, fatal to all those 
That wear those colors on them." 

The royal forces were victorious. Hotspur was slain and Douglas made 

prisoner. 

" Go to the Douglas, and deliver him 
Up to his pleasure, ransomless and free : 
His valor shown upon our crests to-day 
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deed 
Even in the bosom of our adversaries." 

Such was the spirit of the young prince, with whom remained the honors 
of the day. 

The elder Percy perished in a subsequent revolt. 

Every reader of Shakespeare is familiar with the youthful escapades of 
the madcap Prince Henry, who afterwards became one of England's great- 
est kings. His wild pranks brought him and one of his companions be- 
fore the chief-justice. Henry demanded his friend's release, and on refusal 
drew his sword. The justice instantly ordered him to prison, and the prince 
meekly submitted. "Happy the monarch," said the king, "who has a judge 
so resolute, and a son so willing to obey the laws ! " 

King Henry expired in the forty-sixth year of his age and fourteenth of his 
reign. The great stain on his rule was the burning of Lollards for heresy. 



HENRY V. 1413— 1422. 

One of the best proofs of this prince's wisdom was his requiring Chief-Justice 
Gascoigne, who had condemned him to prison, to continue in ofifice. In the 
same spirit he dismissed the companions of his youthful follies; restored the 



ENGLAND. 



73 



long-imprisoned Earl of Marcli (tlie true heir to the throne) to liberty ; con- 
ciliated the powerful family of the Percies b)' restitution of their forfeited 
estates; and gave to the bones of Richard II. a royal burial in Westminster 
Abbey. 

In this reign the persecution of the Lollards or followers of Wickliffe, 
whose chief" "heresy" was the denial of transubstantiation, was intensified. 
Sir John Oldcastle, their leader, and many others perished at the stake. The 
new doctrines began to be associated with those of abolition of social dis- 
tinctions and the equalization of property — in short, with ideas akin to modern 
communism Such was the intensity of the hate to such notions that, thirty 
years after Wickliffe's death, his bones were dfsinterred, burned, and cast 
into a brook running into the Avon. In the following lines Wordsworth 
makes this act the emblem of the diffusion of his doctrines: 



" As thou these ashes, little brook, wilt bear 
Into the Avon — Avon to the tide 
Of Severn — Severn to the narrow seas — 
Into main ocean they — this deed accurst 
As emblem yields to friends and enemies, 
How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified 
By truth, shall spread throughout the world dispersed." 

Henry burned to recover the English possessions in France, and yet more 
to recover the honor lost by England 
having had so many fair provinces 
wrested from her. When one is re- 
solved to fight, pretexts are not far to 
seek. Of course there was the old 
claim of the English kings to the 
throne of France. Henry crossed the 
channel with 1 0,000 men, and, at Agin- 
court, on St. Crispin's day, 141 5, in 
three hours converted a French army 
of ten times their number into a disor- 
derly, rushing rabble. On his return 
to England, exulting people rushed 
into the water and bore him ashore on 
their shoulders. The road towards 
London was strewed with flowers, 
and his entry into the city was like 
a Roman triumph. 

Next year he reduced Rouen, married Catherine, the daughter of the insane 
King of France, was appointed regent of France, and received a promise of 




HENRY V. 



74 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

the crown on the death of the king. In the following year he reduced all 
France to the north of the Loire. In the midst of his career, death removed 
him in 1422, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, leaving an infant son to suc- 
ceed him. 

The most notable advance made towards constitutional liberty during 
Henry's rule was the step gained by the House of Commons that no law should 
be valid without receiving its assent. The famous navy of England, also, had 
its commencement in this reign, the first ship ever owned by government hav- 
ing been built during it. Before that the seaport towns furnished all the ships 
needed for maritime purposes. Henry's widow, Catherine, married Owen 
Tudor, a Welsh gentleman, their grandson becoming Henry VII., and founder 
of the Tudor dynasty. 



HENRY VI. 



1422 — 1461. 



This sovereign was crowned at the age of nine months. A regency was 
formed of which the Duke of Bedford was head. Instantly war was renewed 

between France and England, memor- 
able for the active part taken in it by 
the Maid of Orleans, to whom the 
French king (Charles VII.) was in- 
debted for his restoration. The events 
of this war belong to the history of 
France, and all that needs to be said 
of it here is that, during the minority 
of Henry VI., all the territories con- 
quered by his father were regained by 
France, save the solitary town of 
Calais. Such was the end of the 100 
years' war. 

The English were not a people to 
bear such a loss of territory and of 
honor patiently. Discontent was uni- 
versal, and, when the Duke of Bedford 
died, discord and strife broke out over 
the successorship. 
Henry was not of the stuff to control the discordant elements in such a 
period of discontent and disorder. He was a mild, pious man, ot feeble, 
almost imbecile intellect, and ductile temper. At the age of twenty-three he 
married Margaret, daughter of the Duke of Anjou, a bold, masculine woman, 
in whose hands he was little more than a puppet. This was no age for such a 
ruler. A new rebellion broke out in Kent, headed by a turbulent fellovi^ 




HENRY VI. 



ENGLAND. 75 

named Jack Cade. The statement of their grievances shows how far the 
people had advanced on the road to Hberty since the days of Wat Tyler. In 
their " complaint " submitted to government there is no mention of serfage ; 
only of bad counsellors; undue interference by the nobles in elections: ex- 
tortions by tax-gatherers, and such like. Cade marched on London at the 
head of 20,000 men, having encountered and scattered the royal forces at 
Sevenoaks. Poor Henry fled affrighted to Kenilworth Castle. For three days 
Cade held London, before he was put down. On a promise of pardon and 
redress of grievances the body of the insurgents retired to their homes. Cade 
with a few followers fled southwards. Being pursued and caught he was slain 
by the sheriff of the county, at Iden, Sussex. 

We come now to one of the most disastrous epochs in English history. 
It will be remembered that Henry IV. was not the rightful heir to the throne. 
His father, John of Gaunt, was third son of Edward III., while Lionel, second 
son of that monarch, had issue now represented by Richard, Duke of York. 
On the other hand Henry had obtained the crown by choice of the people, 
and it had now been in his family, unchallenged, for sixty years. It is prob- 
able, therefore, if Henry VI. had been a man like his father his right would 
never have been questioned. Unfortunately he rather took after his maternal 
grandfather, the insane King of France, and Richard of York was by Parlia- 
ment appointed Protector of the kingdom. The king's imbecility and the 
insolent arrogance of the queen seemed to invite York to press his claim for 
the crown. On the king's partial recovery he refused to give up his power, 
and levied an army to maintain himself in his position. This opened the civil 
war between the houses of York and Lancaster, called the " Wars of the 
Roses," from a white rose being the cognizance of the house of York, and a 
red rose that of the house of Lancaster. Tradition and Shakespeare have 
attributed these badges to a dispute between the two leaders in the Temple 
Gardens, when York exclaims : 

" Let him that is a true-born gentleman, 
And stands upon the honor of his birth. 
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth, 
From off this briar pluck a white rose with me." 

And Somerset, relative and defender of the reig-ning house of Lancaster, 

replies : 

" Let him that is no coward nor no flatterer. 
But dare maintain the party of the truth, 
Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me." 

The first encounter was at St. Albans, May, 1455, and the Yorkists were 
victorious. Other engagements followed with various success, till a compro- 
mise was arrived at by which York was to have the crown on the king's death. 



76 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



But Margaret had borne a son to the king, who, by this arrangement, was dis- 
inherited, and to this his high-spirited mother would not submit. She raised 
an army, overthrew the Yorkists at Wakefield, December, 1460, and, the duke 
having fallen, she caused his head to be encircled with a paper crown and set 
upon the walls of York. The gleam of success was transient, for York's son, 
Edward, after routing the queen's forces at Mortimer's Cross, entered London 
in triumph, February, 1461, and his claim being now admitted by Parliament, 
he mounted the throne, amid the acclamations of the people, as Edward IV. 
The unhappy king passed the last seven years of his life a prisoner in the 
tower, save the brief period he was taken out, and set on the throne, by 
Warwick. 

Never did any royal lady experience so many vicissitudes as Margaret of 




MARGARET AND THE ROBBER. 



Anjou. After the disastrous battle of Hexham she fled with her young son 
to a forest, where she wandered about amid the darkness of night, without 
protection, and exhausted with fatigue, terror, and hunger. In this wretched 
condition a robber approached her with a drawn sword. She, rendered fear- 
less by desperation, met him without sign of alarm, and placing her litde boy in 
his arms said, " My friend, this is the son of your king, and I, his mother, con- 
fide him to your protection." He, nobly responding to the trust placed in him, 
conducted mother and child to a place of concealment, and assisted them to 
escape from the country. She, latterly, escaped to Flanders, where she placed 
herself and son under the protection of Philip, Duke of Burgundy. 

Of all the great men who took share in this quarrel of the rival houses none 
was so distinguished as the Earl of Warwick, called the " King-maker," who 
favored the house of York. Tradition says he entertained every day at table 



ENGLAND. 



77 



in his different castles, 30,000 persons, and at his palace, V'^arwick Lane, Lon- 
don, six oxen were eaten every morning at breakfast by his retainers. 

From the beginning of the " Wars of the Roses," by the first battle at St. 
Albans, to its close at Bosworth field in the reign of Richard III., thirty years 
elapsed, during which twelve pitched battles were fought, no less than eighty 
princes were slain, while the ancient nobility was almost annihilated. 

The best thing to note in the reign of the unfortunate Henry is the found- 
ing of Eton College, the second of the great schools to be founded, Winchester 
being the first. His reign, also, saw Chaucer in his bloom. 



EDWARD IV. 

For the first three years of his reign Edward had to struggle to keep his 
position. Within a month of his accession he obtained a victory over his 
enemies at Towton, Yorkshire, March, 1461, and finally, after the decisive 
battle of Hexham, May, 1464, King Henry fell into his hands, and the unfor- 
tunate Margaret and her son escaped, 
as has been already told, to Flanders. 
This closed the war for a time. 

Edward though of a generous dis- 
position was impetuous and impru- 
dent. By his desire Warwick went to 
France to solicit for him the hand of a 
sister-in-law of Louis, King of France. 
While the king-maker was on his mis- 
sion, the kino- as he was huntine met 
with Elizabeth Woodville, a knight's 
daughter, and married her secretly. 
This insult to himself the king-maker 
resolved to revenge by restoring the 
poor imbecile, Henry VI., to the throne. 
Thousands at his bidding abandoned 
the white rose for the red, and in 1469 
Edward fled to Holland, while Henry was released from prison and set on the 
throne. But in 1471 Edward returned to England, gave battle to Warwick, on 
Easter Sunday, at Barnet, where the great earl was slain. The undaunted 
Margaret had meantime come over from France, hoping to find her husband 
king, but in the next month Edward routed the Lancasterians at Tewkesbury, 
capturing both Queen Margaret and her son, Prince Edward. The latter was 
murdered the day after the battle ; the queen, after an imprisonment of four 
years, was ransomed by the King of France ; while poor Henry died one of those 




EDWARD IV. 



78 



IHE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



deaths so common in the tower, he was murdered. Edward died in 14S3, the 
latter years of his life presenting few political incidents of importance. 

This reign is remarkable for the introduction ot printing into England. 
William Caxton, a London merchant, was sent by Edward to transact some 
business in the Netherlands, and during his stay visited Cologne, where he ac- 
quired a knowledge of the art, and on his return set up a press in West- 
minster. The first book printed in England was a " Treatise on the Game of 
Chess." Ca.xton printed a great many religious works, some histories, and 
the poems of Chaucer. Learning began to be appreciated, and people began 
to give their money for the founding of schools, rather than of monasteries. 
Many new colleges were built in Oxford and Cambridge. Nevertheless many 
superstitions still continued. Even among the most enlightened there existed a 
belief in witchcraft, alchemy, and astrology. Poor old women were still scored 
on the forehead or burned or drowned as witches; the alchemist was unwearied 
in his researches after the elixir vitce, which was to cure all diseases, and give 
to age the vigor and bloom of youth, and after the philosopher's stone, which 
was to convert all metals into gold. The astrologer still told people their 
future, by a study of the planets which dominated at their birth. Of medicine 
and surgery little was known, the former being practised by monks, the latter 
by barbers. 



RICHARD III. 1483— 1485. 

This sovereign, brother to the last king, is probably more generally known 

through Shakespeare's delineation of 
him than from works of plain history. 
His brother, Edward IV., left two sons, 
one about thirteen, the other nine. Im- 
mediately on his brother's death he as- 
sumed the title of Protector, and getting 
the poor boys into his power sent both 
to the tower. They were never again 
seen, and were believed to have been 
smothered by hired assassins. Hav- 
ing thus cleared the way, he caused him- 
self to be proclaimed king by the citizens 
of London. Soon after his coronation 
he passed several laws for the encourage- 
ment and protection of home trade, with 
the view of conciliatinor the guilds and 

RICHARD III. _ . . 

corporations in towns in his favor. He 
also established Engrlish consuls in the trading towns on the Mediterranean. 




80 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Possibly the most important of the institutions established by him was the 
post-office, in imitation of the couriers instituted by Louis II. of France. But 
nothing could reconcile the great body of the people to his cruelties. He had 
caused several nobles to be beheaded without a trial on a charge of treason. 
A conspiracy was the result, headed by the Duke of Buckingham, to restore 
the line of Lancaster, and after a battle at Bosworth, where Richard was 
slain, Henry, Earl of Richmond, a descendant of John of Gaunt, Duke of 
Lancaster, was hailed king on the field of battle under the title of Henry VII. 



HENRY VII. 1485— 1509. 

Henry's first act, after ascending the throne, was a wise one. He married 
the eldest daugliter of Edward IV., and thus terminated a long-standing 
quarrel by the union of the white rose with the red. 

Henry's claim to the throne was by no means clear, and the leading politi- 
cal events of his reign were insurrections arising from claims made by per- 
sons professing to be nearer heirs. There lay in the tower a young prince, 
the Earl of Warwick, nephew of Edward IV., whose title rriany thought better 
than Henry's. Suddenly a report spread that Warwick had escaped, and a 
young man appeared in Dublin — where the Duke of Clarence, Warwick's 
father, had been esteemed as governor of Ireland — and was there, amid popular 
acclaim, crowned King of England. As soon, however, as he ventured into 
England his party was routed at Stoke, 1487, and he himself turned into the 
royal kitchen to serve as a scullion by Henry, who had a talent for turning 
everything to the best account. He was really the son of a carpenter, and 
his true name was Lambert Simnel. After him appeared Perkin Warbeck, who 
professed to be the younger son of the late king, spared by the assassin who 
had murdered his brother. This claimant was patronized by the Duchess of 
Burgundy, sister of Edward IV., and supported by James IV. of Scotland, and 
to this day many believe he was the genuine heir. He married a beautiful 
Scotch lady, Catherine Gordon, daughter of the Earl of Huntly, afterwards 
known as the " Wliite Rose of England," who proved her faith in him by re- 
maining true to him through all his misfortunes. After many adventures he 
fell into Henry's hands and was sent to the tower. In 1499 Henry, pestered 
by a third claimant, in order to free himself from further trouble, had both 
young Warwick (who was still in the tower) and Warbeck convicted of a plot 
and beheaded. 

Henry died in 1509 and was buried by the side of his wife in the beautiful 
chapel adjoining Westminster Abbey, which he had built tor himself 

Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry, was married to James IV., King of 
Scotland, and it was in consequence of this marriage that James VI. of Scot- 



ENGLAND. 81 

land, her great-grandson, inherited the throne of England on the death of 
Elizabeth. 

Bacon wrote a history of Henry's reign and says "justice was well ad- 
ministered, save when the king was partei." Hume reckons it " the dawn of 
civility and science in England." 

To the intelligent reader the following account of the daily life in the house 
of a great nobleman in the reign of Henry VII. will have more interest than 
the bald recital of political incidents. In the castle of the Earl of Northum- 
berland everybody rose at six, when mass was said, all the knights, squires, 
and servants being present. After mass came breakfast, when there was set 
on the earl's table, for himself and lady, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, salt 
fish, red herrings, and sprats in season. This was the ordinary fare on fish 
days; on flesh days a chine of mutton or piece of boiled beef was substituted 
for the fish. At ten o'clock the whole family dined in the great hall ; supper 
was served at four, and at nine the gates were closed, after which no one was 
allowed to pass in or out. The earl reckoned on dining from thirty to sixty 
strangers every day. The expense of each person for meat, drink, and 
firing was calculated at two-pence half-penny a day, equivalent to about 
sixty cents of our money. 

Maps and charts were first brought to England in this reign by Bar- 
tholomew Columbus, who came to make proposals respecting the projected 
voyage of his brother. Henry was willing to support Christopher, but 
before Bartholomew got back to Spain he had sailed in the service of 
Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Spaniards became masters of the New 
World. 

Artillery was first largely used in this reign. It was artillery gave Henry 
his easy victory over the Cornishmen who supported Warbeck. Through- 
out the Middle Ages the call of a baron had been enouofh to raise a for- 
midable revolt. Yeomen and retainers took down their bow from the 
chimney-corner, knights buckled on their armor, and forthwith an army 
threatened the throne. Without artillery, such an army was now helpless, 
and the one train of artillery lay at the disposal of the king. Gunpowder had 
ruined feudalism. 



HENRY VIII. 1509— 1547. 

We now come to the time when the old customs founded on the Roman 
Catholic faith were abolished, monasteries and convents shut up and abolished, 
and the religious orders which had formerly played so prominent a part, 
alike in Anglo-Saxon and Norman times, disappear. Such a change could 
not have been effected by a sovereign less absolute than Henry VIII. 

Henry was second son of Henry VII., and ascended the throne at the 



82 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

age of eighteen. His elder brother was dead, and had left a widow, Catherine 
of Arragon, a daughter of the illustrious sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and 
Isabella. Soon after his accession she became the wife of Henry VIII., and 
this was the immediate cause of the grreat revolution in the Eng-lish church 
and English faith. Catherine was his senior by a few years. 

The first twenty years of Henry's reign were quiet enough. In the be- 
ginning of it (1513) were two short wars, one with France and one with Scot- 
land, in which latter war the victory of Flodden was won. Cardinal Wolsey, 
Archbishop of York, was minister from 1515 till his fall in 1529, and this was 
the best governed portion of Henry's reign. Henry was an eager student of 
theology, and in 1521 produced a book in defence of the seven sacraments 
apfainst Luther, which earned him the title of " Defender of the Faith," a title 
still borne by the English sovereigns. But as Catherine aged, Henry became 
dissatisfied and wished a younger wife. He professed to be troubled in con- 
science on account of his marriage with his brother's widow and prayed the 
pope to divorce the union. But Catherine was the sister of Charles V. of 
Spain, probably the most powerful monarch in Christendom, and the pope 
hesitated and temporized. Ever since the days of Wickliffe the new ideas had 
been operating like yeast in the English mind, and many were eager to see a 
check put upon the power and influence of the church. The pope had named 
a commission, of which Wolsey was a member, to try the divorce, but on the 
king declaring his intention of marrying Anne Boleyn, a young lady who. had 
been about the court, Wolsey declined to act, and the commission was with- 
drawn. The revocation of the commission was virtually the end of the papal 
power in England, the steps that followed being the working out of the in- 
evitable results. Wolsey was deprived of power in 1529 and a ministry 
appointed, in which for the first time laymen held the highest places. The 
king's chief adviser was Wolsey's old servant, Cromwell, while Sir Thomas 
More was appointed chancellor. 

Wolsey whose fall we have thus noted was a churchman and statesman of 
the school of Dunstan and Thomas-a-Becket. He rose from the lowest ranks 
to be prime minister of England, archbishop, and cardinal, and, except the 
king himself, was the richest and most powerful man in the kingdom. He 
built the fine palace of Hampton Court, and presented it to the king. He was 
one of the ablest and most faithful ministers that ever a sovereign had. The 
words in which Shakespeare makes him address his servant Cromwell after his 
fall are among the noblest, and, at the same time, the most pathetic in 

literature : 

" Be ju.st and fear not : 
Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
Thy God's, and truth's; then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell, 
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr. 



ENGLAND. 83 

O Cromwell, Cromwell ! 
Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my king, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies." 

Henry now appealed to Parliament and measure after measure was passed 
limitino- clerical power and papal influence. Henry was declared head of the 
church in England, the tax of Peter's pence was abolished, and the pope's 
claim for the annats or first year's revenue of every benefice declared invalid. 
In 1533 the king married Anne Boleyn, and Cranmer, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, held a court and pronounced a sentence of divorce between Henry and 
Catherine, declaring the marriage to have been null from the beginning. 
Parliament also settled the succession on the issue of Anne Boleyn to the 
exclusion of that of Catherine. Scarcely had these measures passed when 
news came from Rome that the pope had pronounced a judgment finding 
Henry's marriage with Catherine valid. On the day following Henry called 
into operation the act abolishing the pope's authority. 

The ruthlessness of Henry's character now manifested itself He merci- 
lessly sacrificed every one who stood in his way. Minor victims fell unheeded, 
but all Europe was shocked when Sir Thomas More and Fisher, Bishop of 
Rochester, were put to death for refusing to acknowledge the new succession, 
and to admit the king's right to the headship of the church. Cromwell also 
fell a victim. Within a short time after the birth of the Princess (afterwards 
queen) Elizabeth, Henry's love for Anne Boleyn ceased, and he had her exe- 
cuted. On the day after the execution he married Jane Seymour, who died 
in giving birth to Edward \T. From his next wife, Anne of Cleves, he procured 
a divorce. His fifth wife, Catherine Howard, was within a few months of her 
marriage divorced and executed for adultery, and his sixth wife, Catherine 
Parr, survived him, and so the catalogue ends. Henry himself died in 1547, 
in the fifty-sixth year of his age and thirty-eighth of his reign. 

Not the least painful feature associated with the reformation was the 
suppression of religious houses and the appropriation, by this tyrant, of their 
revenues, plate, jewels, and other valuables for his own use. All the fine old 
abbeys were dismantled of their beautiful paintings and magnificent dec- 
orations, and the books and manuscripts that had been the work of so many 
ages given up to destruction. The inhabitants were expelled, many to starve 
or beg, while the higher orders were compelled to resign their property to the 
crown. The suppression of these houses was a serious misfortune to the poor, 
who had been accustomed to look to them for succor in all their distresses. 

In the last will of King Henry it was set down that his son Edward, born 
by Jane Seymour, should succeed him ; but in the event of Edward clying 
without children the crown should devolve on the Princess Mary, daughter of 
Catherine of Arragon, and after her on Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn. 
It so happened that all three did reign in succession. 



84 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



EDWARD VI. 



'547— • 553- 



This reign is chiefly noticeable for the completion and consolidation of 

the work of reformation. Imaofes were 
removed from churches, Roman Catho- 
lic bishops imprisoned, the cup extended 
to the laity in communion, the celibacy 
of the clergy made no longer obliga- 
tory, and a new service-book was drawn 
■^^^N\ "P ^y Bishops Cranmer and Ridley, 
5:xxxN.<\.v\ assisted by other divines. The most 
meritorious work done by the king 
himself was the founding of a large 
number of grammar schools, known as 
King Edward's schools. On account 
of the Scottish government refusing to 
let their Queen (Mary) marry Edward, 
in accordance with a contract, war broke 

out with that country, and the Scotch were completely defeated at Pinkie, in 

September, 1547. Edward died in July, 1553. 




EDWARD VI. 



MARY. 1553—1558. 

Mary, who succeeded on the death 
of her brother Edward, could not be 
expected to feel favorably towards the 
reformation, for it arose trom the de- 
sire of King Henry to get rid of her 
mother. Still, although a warm friend 
of the Catholic church, she was not at 
first disposed to be severe, but rather 
interfered to mitigate the cruelties of 
Bishops Gardiner and Bonner. After 
her marriage with Philip of Spain — a 
stern, coarse bigot — those bloody per- 
secutions began which have stained 
her name. Among other victims was 
Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
who had pronounced sentence of 
divorce against her mother. In an unnecessary war with France, provoked 




MARY I. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH IN HER YOUTH. 



(85) 



86 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



by Philip, Calais, the last luicrlish possession, was lost, and the queen was so 
much grieved that the loss is supposed to have hastened her death. 



ELIZABHTH. 1558—1603. 

Elizabeth was in her thinl year when her mother, Anne Boleyn, was be- 
headed. She ascended the throne at the age of twenty-five, and one of the 
first acts of her reign was to call to her counsels Cecil, to whose courteous 
judgment and clear intellect she had the good sense, to the very last, to sub- 
ordinate her own capricious temper. Like her sister Mary, Elizabeth on her 
accession, had promised to allow all her subjects the enjoyment of their relig- 
ious opinions uiulisiurheil. No sooner, however, was she established on the 
throne than she adopted measures to repress Catholicism and re-establish 
the Protestant religion. Catholics were fined and imprisoned, or even executed, 
who refused to atteml the Protestant churches. At the same time it must be 
acknowledged thai she took every means to extend the commerce and in- 
crease the o|Hilence of her country, which, under her, reached a degree of 
prosi)erily it iuul never hitherto attainetl. The progress of navigation, under 
Drake, Erobisher and others, was unparalleled. Two great political events 

distinguish this reign — the captivity 
and execution of Mary, Oueen of 
Scots, and the defeat and dispersion 
of the famous Spanish Armada. 
The former is the one great blot on 
Elizabeth's name ; her conduct on 
the occasion of the threatened inva- 
sion by the latter constitutes her 
chief claim on the world's respect. 
Mary, lleeing from her rebellious sub- 
jects in Scotland, apjiealed to her 
cousin for succor and shelter. For 
eighteen melancholy years she was 
kept a prisoner, and at length, on 
the pretext that she was the centre 
of Catholic plots, she was beheaded in 

" "^ Fotheringay Castle, Feb. 7th, 1587. 

Beautifully ami pathetically does the poet Burns make the unfortunate 
Mary apostrophize the coldly, calculating, callous Elizabeth: 

" Rut as for tlu-c, thou false woman. 
My sister and my fac ! 
Grim vcuijoanco yet shall whet tlic sword 
That through tliv heart shall <i;ae. 




''■As 




ENGLAND. 



87 



" The weeping blood in woman's breasts 
Was never known to thee, 
Nor the balm that thops on woinids of woe 
l-'rae woman's ])itying c'e." 

Philip of Spain hail several causes for hating Elizabeth. She had rcfiised 
to marry him, for thoiigii he had been her sister's husband he had proposed 
marriage to her. Then she 
helrii'iHied the Huguenots of 
iM-ance ami tlu- Nelliei huuls, 
who struggled against his au- 
thority ; aiul, finally, her navi- 
oators, Drake and others, had 
seized and plundered several 
of his American settlements. 
On July 19th, 1588, the for 
midable Spanish fleet came in 
sight of Plymouth, whereup- 
on Elizabeth's admiral, Loril 
Howard of Effingham, ordered 
eight of his lij^htest ships, 
stowed with combustibles, to 
be set afire in the middle of 
the night ami sent adrift 
among the shij^s of the 
enemy. The result was such 
consternation and confusion 
that tin! tli'struction or ilis- 
persion ot the armada was 
effected by tht; small, but ably handled lleet of Englaml. 

The weakest point in lUizabeth's character was her fondness for favorites. 
Chief among these was the Earl of Essex. Sent to Ireland id (|urll Tyrone's 
rebellion, he conducted matters so improvidendy that his troojis melted away 
by death and desertion. He returned to luiglaml only to face liie accusations 
and persecution of enemies bent on his destruction. CkiUed to desperation, 
he proceeded from folly to folly, till he was seized, arraigned for high treason, 
convicted and executed. It cost Elizabeth a sore struggle ere she could sign 
the warrant for his execution. A story is told that in happier days the queen 
had taken a ring from her finger and given it to P^ssex with an injunction to 
send it to her whenever he should be in danger. This ring, after his con- 
demnation, he gave to the Countess of Nottingham to convey to the queen. 
The hard-hearted woman, counselled by Cecil, Plssex's great enemy, withheld 
the token, and the queen, indignant at P^sscx's not appealing to her, signed the 




SIR NA'ALTEF^ RALEIGH. 



88 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



warrant of his doom. The countess, when on her death-bed, sent for the 
queen and confessed what she had done, imploring forgiveness. Wild with 
rage and grief, the queen seized the dying woman by the shoulder and shook 
her violently, exclaiming, " God forgive you ; I never will ! " 

Another of the queen's favorites was Sir Walter Raleigh. Distinguished 
in many ways, he was a famous navigator and sailed on voyages of discovery 
to America. He was the first to take possession of the oldest of all the 
States, to which he gave the name of Virginia, in honor of the "Virgin 
Queen." A vessel sent out by Raleigh left a number of settlers on an island 
on the American coast, where they would all have perished had they not been 
discovered and carried home 'by Drake. They brought tobacco with them, 
and smoking soon became one of the accomplishments of the fashionable 
youth of England. Whether the weed brought was a boon or the reverse, 

we leave our readers to determine. 
A less dubious gift of his to England 
was that of potatoes. 

The Elizabethan is the golden age 
of Encjlish literature. The singfle 
name of Shakespeare elevates it 
above the competing epoch in the 
world's history. William Shake- 
speare was born April 23d, 1564, at 
Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, the 
third of eight children born to John 
Shakespeare and Mary Arden, who 
had broueht her husband a dowrv of 
fifty-four acres of land. John Shake- 
speare rose to be high bailiff and 
chief-alderman of Stratford, but fall- 
ing later into poverty, William, at the age of fourteen, had to be taken from 
the free grammar-school of the burgh, and set to work. Ben Jonson (himself 
a ripe scholar) says of him, " he had little Latin and less Greek." At the age 
of nineteen he married Anne Hathaway, who in six months presented him 
with a daughter. In 1 586, falling into a poaching scrape, he left Stratford 
and came to London and became associated with Blackfriars' theatre, where 
he rose to be actor, dramatist, and shareholder. By 1611 the whole of his 
immortal plays, thirty-seven in number, were produced. A year after the 
completion of the last he retired to Stratford, where he had by purchase ac- 
quired considerable property. There he died in his fifty-second year, leaving 
two daughters. No lineal representative of the great dramatist remains. 
Besides p'ays, he produced in his twenty-ninth year a poem, "Venus and 
Adonis," and, next year, the " Rape of Lucrece." His sonnets, fifty-four in 
number, were first printed in 1609. 




SHAKESPEARE. 



ENGLAND. 89 

Only second to Shakespeare was Edmund Spenser, author of the "Faerie 
Queen." He was born of good family in London in 1553, and was educated 
as a sizar at Cambridge. In 1579 was published his "Shepherd's Calen- 
dar," dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney, through whose influence he received the 
appointment of secretary to Lord Grey, queen's deputy in Ireland, where, for 
his services, he received a grant of the estate of Kilcolman, Cork, covering 
some 3,000 acres, where he chiefly resided. Here he wrote his " Faerie 
Queen," and, with his friend Raleigh, read the manuscript while sitting 

"Amongst the cooly shade 
Of the green alders, by the Milla's shore." 

By Raleigh he was taken to England and introduced to Queen Elizabeth. 
In Tyrone's rebellion his house or castle at Kilcolman was burned, he and his 
wife escaping with difficulty, whilst their youngest child perished in the flames. 
He died, Ben Jonson says, for "lack of bread" in London, January, 1599, and 
was buried near Chaucer in Westminster Abbey. Spenser's other works are 
his "Complaints," "Mother Hubbard Tale," "The Tears of the Muses," etc., 
with a prose work entitled a " View of Ireland." Another great name in this 
reign is that of Lord Bacon, author of "Novum Organon," "Advancement of 
Learning," " Essays," etc., and recognized as father of the inductive philos- 
ophy. All his works are irradiated by the light of an intellect, at once one of 
the most capacious and prolound that ever appeared before men. Alas, that 
his moral nature was as grovelling as his intellectual towered above that of 
other men. Appointed kce|)er of the Great Seal, and in 161 9, Lord Chancel- 
lor, with the title of Lord Verulam, he polluted the stream of justice by truck- 
ling to the sovereign and powerful favorites, as well as by directly accepting 
bribes for unjust judgments. Well has Pope said of him : 

" If parts allure thee, think how Bacon shined 
The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind." 

We have space to mention further, as lights of this reign, only the names 
of the dramatists Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Marlowe, and of 
Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Philip Sidney, each great as statesman, warrior 
and writer. 

Elizabeth did not long survive her favorite Essex. When her end ap- 
proached her ministers urged her to name her successor. Some one named 
Lord Beauchamp, heir to the Suffolk claim. "I will have no rogue's son," 
she cried hoarsely, "in my seat." At the mention of the name of the King of 
Scotland she raised her hand feebly to her head, which her ministers took as 
a sign of consent. She expired March 24th, 1603, in the seventieth year of 
her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. 

One of the remarkable features in this reign was "the appearance of the 



90 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Puritans. Many who had been exiled by Mary took refuge in Geneva, and 
there learned the doctrine of Calvin, the founder of Presbyterianism. These 
persons, when they returned on the accession of Elizabeth, were horrified to 




CARRYING QUEEN ELIZABETH IN STATE. 



find that she retained many of the prayers and observances of the Catholic 
Church. Though discountenanced by the queen, their public preaching, ex- 
hortations and way of living had a visible effect on the manners of the age. 
In particular, Sunday, or Sabbath as they named it, began now to be observed 
with seriousness, instead of being regarded as a day of pastime and excess. 




COSTUMES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S TIME. 



In this reign was enacted the first compulsory law for the relief of the poor, 
which is the foundation of the present poor-laws of England ; coaches were 
first introduced, and a German set up the first manufactory of needles. In 



ENGLAND. 91 

1588 the first paper-mill was established, and the art of weaving stockings 
was invented by a Cambridge student. Neither coffee nor tea were known. 
But ladies, even of the highest rank, were wont to regale themselves at a 
seven o'clock breakfast with hot mead and ale. May Day was a great festival, 
when the rustics used to repair to the woods, where they sang and danced till 
daylight, carrying home with them wild flowers, branches of trees, and, above 
all, the May-pole, drawn by o.xen. This May-pole was set up on the village 
green, and a queen of the May chosen from among the village lasses. Every 
reader will recall Tennyson's lines : 

" You must wake and call me early, call ine early, mother dear ; 
To-morrow 'II be the happiest time of all the glad New Year, 
Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest, merriest day; 
For I'm to be queen o' the May, mother I'm to be queen o' the May." 



JAMES I. 1603— 1625. 

By the accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English throne, the whole 
of the three kingdoms were united, under one monarch, in the united king- 
dom of Great Britain and Ireland. As many of the events of the following 
reigns have reference to Scodand and Ireland as well as England, we will, with 
the view of economizing space, treat all such under one or other of these 
countries. 

The leadino- characteristic of the monarchs of the Stuart race was their 

o 

conviction that they ruled by " right divine," which unfortunately was often in- 
terpreted by its members to mean " right divine to govern wrong," and so was 
the cause of the misfortunes which seemed to dog the name. James was a 
weak, timid, vain man — "the most learned fool in Europe" — and full of the 
conviction that he was above and independent of all ministers. Parliaments, or 
other restraining agencies. Both he and his male successors thought they 
could raise what money they wished by their own uncontrolled edict, and that 
they could prescribe to their subjects what form of religion they should follow, 
and what faith they should hold. 

The most notable event in King James' reign was the gunpowder-plot. 
Scarcely had he been a year on the throne till some fanatical Roman Catholics 
formed a plot to blow up the parliament house when the King, royal family, 
and all the peers should be assembled. A Yorkshire gendeman, Guy Fawkes, 
who had run through his patrimony, was hired to e.xecute the plot, with suffi- 
cient assistants. A mine was run under Parliament, and a cellar also under the 
house hired, and twenty barrels of gunpowder placed in it. Parliament was to 
assemble November 5th, when Fawkes was to fire the mine by means of a 
slow match. On October 26th, Lord Monteagle, a Catholic nobleman, re- 



92 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

ceived an anonymous letter warning him to stay away from Parliament. The 
letter was laid before the secretary of state and the king. The cellar was 
searched, the gunpowder found, and a man discovered with a dark lantern in 
his hand and matches in his pocket. This was Fawkes. He and most of the 
conspirators were apprehended and put to death. For over two centuries the 
escape of the king was commemorated in the English Church as a day of 
thanksCTivinof. 

Another plot had been laid before to deprive James of the sovereignty, 
which would not be referred to here, were it not that it cost England the life 
of one of her illustrious sons, Sir Walter Raleigh. He was a party to the plot, 
and was in consequence confined in the Tower for thirteen years, during which 
time he wrote his " History of the World." At length, pretending that he 
knew of a gold mine in South America, he was permitted to levy a band ot 
adventurous companions and go forth with them as their guide to the mine. 
The expedition proved a failure, and when he returned home he was beheaded 
for his old treason. 

A plan was afoot for a marriage between the King's eldest son, Prince 
Charles, and the daughter of Philip, King of Spain. The prince, however, was 
averse to marrying a woman he had never seen. Being fond of adventures, 
he and the Duke of Buckingham, the king's favorite, persuaded James to al- 
low them to travel to Spain in disguise. They setoff on the romantic mission, 
with a single attendant each, under the names of John and Thomas Smith. 
On their way Charles saw at Paris the Princess Henrietta of France. Arrived 
at Madrid, the knights-errant made themselves known, and the prince was 
magnificently entertained. But the end of it all was that the Infanta and prince 
did not take to each other. The match was broken off, and in the end Charles 
subsequently married Henrietta of France. 

James had been brought up in the Presbyterian Church, but discovering 
after some time's sojourn in England that Presbyterianism was not "a religion 
for a gentleman," he sent, in 1 617, commissioners to Scotland to force the 
people into the English Church. The people, either not agreeing with the 
king in his notion, or not desiring to be converted so summarily into " gentle- 
men," declined to conform ; and this step of James was the cause of great 
future trouble in that country. 

James died in 1625. 

London streets were first paved in this reign, each householder paving the 
portion opposite his house, and the fronts of all new houses were ordered to 
be of brick or stone. 

The great literary undertaking in this reign was the translation of the 
Scriptures into the form we had them until the recent revision. Besides Wick- 
liffe's translation, there were others, as Tyndale's, in existence, but their lan- 
guage was becoming obsolete. No such work was ever so successfully exe- 



ENGLAND. 



93 



cuted. This and the works of Shakespeare had the effect of crystallizing the 
Enghsh language in the form in which it was spoken three hundred years 
ago. 



CHARLES I. 1625— 1629. 

Charles was twenty-five years of age when he ascended the throne, and 
one of his first acts was to marry Henrietta of France, whom he had seen 
when on his Quixotic expedition to Madrid. He was a decorous, earnest man, 
of irreproachable character in private life, a good husband and fond father; 
but, on the other hand, in political 
affairs he was unscrupulous, and 
resorted to dissimulation and fraud 
for the accomplishment of his ends. 
He had, besides, inherited the most 
extreme notions of kingly pre- 
rogative — the divine right of kings, 
as it was called — and he imbibed 
from his father the fixed notion 
that a national Episcopal Church, 
to which everyone must be com- 
pelled to conform, was alone con- 
sistent with regal authority. The 
Parliaments in the commencement 
of his reign, instead of compla- 
cently granting supplies in accord- 
ance with his demands, showed 
themselves rather disposed to vindi- 
cate the people's rights and liber- 
ties. This was not at all what he 
desired, and after causing several members to be imprisoned, he dissolved the 
Houses and governed the country eleven years without either Parliament or a 
responsible ministry. He took, in place. Laud (Archbishop of Canterbury) 
and Strafford (of Star-Chamber notoriety) as his advisers. The two great ques- 
tions of his reign were freedom of conscience and the right of the people to 
have a voice in taxing themselves. Both of these claims Charles denied. The 
Puritans (as the non-conformists were called) were treated by the half-popish 
Laud with merciless severity. Many who refused to conform to what they re- 
garded as unscriptural and idolatrous usages, were dragged before a secret 
and irresponsible court, called the Star-Chamber, and punished by imprison* 
ment, whipping, the pillory, and by having their ears cut off their nostrils sift. 




CHARLES I. 



94 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

and their cheeks branded by red-hot irons. In consequence, many fled over- 
seas to New England, where they could worship God in accordance with their 
conscience, none daring to make them afraid. The Scots he roused to open 
revolt by forcing Episcopacy upon them. 

All this time Charles was in desperation for money. He now fell on a de- 
vice to raise it, which, with Laud's persecutions, and Strafford's Star-Chamber 
secret tribunals, roused the spirit of the people of England also to active op- 
position. From Anglo-Saxon times the maritime towns of the kingdom had 
been required to furnish shipping in seasons of danger. Charles' subser- 
vient lawyers now held that an equal obligation lay on the whole kingdom, 
and accordingly writs for " ship-money " were issued to the sheriffs of every 
county, requiring them to levy it on the people. Many refused to pay the un- 
constitutional tax, and prominent among these was John Hampden, who both 
as a private man and a member of subsequent Parliaments with " dauntless 
breast" withstood the despotic impost. 

Charles was now so distressed for money that he summoned a Parliament 
in hopes of being relieved from his difficulties. But the people sent many 
Puritan representatives to the House of Commons, and this body — now the 
stronger — led by Hampden, Pym and others, instead of granting him immedi- 
ate relief, demanded ULimerous concessions which he resolutely refused to 
grant. He saw, in fact, he must surrender every prerogative he claimed — 
spiritual despotism, unchecked power of taxation, etc. — or go to war. He 
chose the latter alternative and set up the royal standard at Nottingham. He 
was supported by many of the nobility and gentry — cavaliers as they were 
called — but the townspeople and yeomen, in general, joined the parliament. 
Such was the commencement of the civil war, in which Oliver Cromwell, a 
country gentleman and brewer of great military talent, rose to be commander. 
For three years Charles struggled against his Parliament, and many battles 
were fought, till at length his forces were utterly routed at Naseby, and he 
himself fled in disguise to the Scottish army. The Scots gave him up and 
from that time forth he was, although not in actual confinement, virtually a 
prisoner. Weary of the situation he attempted to escape. Being captured, 
he was ultimately conducted to London, tried in Westminster Hall, con- 
demned to death, and executed at Whitehall, January 30th, 1649. 

Newspapers began to be first regularly published, and banking had its 
origin in this reign. The Puritans begfan to be called " Roundheads " from 
the fashion of wearing their hair closely cropped. They wore a dress of 
coarse gray, black, or brown cloth made in the plainest fashion, and the old- 
fashioned high-crowned hat. The cavaliers or court party, on the other hand, 
wore long ringlets, silk or satin doublets, with slashed sleeves, lace collars, 
and flat beaver hat with feathers. 

Charles was a liberal patron of the fine arts. Van Dyck, the famous 




OLIVER CROMWELL. 



(95) 



96 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




TRIAL. OF CHARLES I. 



Flemish painter, settled in England at his request, and was by him pensioned 
and raised to knighthood. Many of the finest portraits in the royal palaces, 
the mansions of the nobility and the national gallery are by him. Had 
Charles lived in a more peaceful time, he would, like Louis XIV. of France, 
have founded a national school of art. 



COMMONWEALTH. 



England was now without a king or House of Lords. The entire gov- 
ernment was vested in the Commons. The Scots had, indeed, proclaimed 
Charles II., but Cromwell hurrying from Ireland met the Scots and defeated 
them first at Dunbar and then, decisively, at Worcester. It was in these 









EXECUTION OF CHARLES I. 



(97) 



98 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

battles, and that of Marston Moor, that Cromwell's famed " Ironsides " earned 
their fame. 

The following poem conceived in the true spirit that inspired Cromwell's 
" Ironsides " reveals to us the secret of their success. They fought in faith, 
and with perfect confidence in themselves and their cause • 

THE BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR. 

" Hot Rupert came spurring to Marston Moor ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Came spurring hard with thousands a score. 

Praise we the Lord ! . . . 
He bade us flee, that they might pursue ; 
So from trench and leaguer straight off we drew. 
But we halted on Marston Moor anew ; 

To the Lord our God be glory ! . . . 

"Then the shot of their guns through our stilled ranks tore; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Then a pause and a hush fell on the war; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Then their squadrons thickened, and down once more 
Came Rupert and Hell with a rush and a roar, 
More fierce and fell than they came before ; 

To the Lord our God be glory ! 

" Not so, O Lord, was it with thine own ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
To us were thy truth and mercy shown ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Through our closed-up ranks were our trumpets blown : 
Then no shout, but a deep psalm rose alone, 
And we knew that our God would his might make known. 

To his holy name be glory ! 

"And Cromwell, his servant, spoke the word ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
' On ! smite for the Lord ! spare not ! ' we heard ; 

Praise we the Lord ! 
Hotly our spirits within us stirred ; 
Reins were loosened and flanks were spurred. 
And the heathen went down before God and his word. 

To his name alone be glory ! " 

Many stories are related of the adventures of Charles after Worces- 
ter. For some days he stayed disguised as a laborer at a farm-house and 
cut faggots in the wood. On a subsequent day, seeing a party of horse- 



ENGLAND. 99 

men approaching, he climbed amongst the dense foliage of an old oak, and lay- 
hid till they passed, listening to their talk about capturing him. The oak is 
still known as the " Royal Oak," and is to this day a popular sign for public 
houses. Amid all his distresses Charles was gay and played many a prank 
among his friends. He escaped to Fechamp in Normandy. Though up- 
wards of forty persons, many in humble circumstances, had been privy to his 
escape, and though Parliament had offered ^i,ooo for his capture, not one was 
base enough to betray him. 

Cromwell, whose ambition was as boundless as that of the great Napoleon, 
and whose influence over his soldiery was equally unlimited, now resolved to 
vindicate his authority by the support of a military force, and get rid of Parlia- 
ment. With this view he persuaded his officers to present a petition to the 
Commons, asking for the arrears of pay due them, and, next, and more es- 
pecially, that it should dissolve itself. As Cromwell foresaw. Parliament 
treated the petition with scorn. This was what he wanted. He repaired at 
once to the House with 300 soldiers, whom he posted outside. Entering, he 
listened for a time to the debate, then stamped with his foot as a signal for his 
men to enter. Seizing the mace, the emblem of royal authority, with the 
words, " Take away that bauble," he ordered the members to disband them- 
selves and give place to honester men ; then locking the door, and putting the 
key in his pocket, he returned to his officers at Whitehall. 

Such was the dissolution of the Long Parliament, a deed regarded in 
history as one of the most daring and unconstitutional ever performed. 
Cromwell's next object was to have a Parliament in name, which should be 
entirely under his authority. The mode of election was novel. The ministers 
through the country were directed to take the sense of their congregations 
respecting persons " faithful and fearing God," and to send up their names. 
From these Cromwell selected one hundred and thirty-nine, to whom he gave 
authority for fifteen months. The members were largely fanatical enthusiasts. 
One of them was called Praise-God Barebones, and from him the Parliament 
got the name of the " Barebones Parliament." By it Cromwell was named 
" Protector of the Commonwealth." In reality he was an unlimited monarch, 
and probably the ablest that ever ruled England. He sustained the national 
honor abroad in a manner such as had not been known from the days of 
Elizabeth. After defeating the Dutch twice at sea, he made an honorable 
peace with them ; from the Spaniards he captured Jamaica, and his fleet, under 
Blake, seized many of their treasure-ships on their homeward voyages from 
America. France and Spain and all the continental powers sought his favor. 

Cromwell died in 1658, and was succeeded by his son Richard, a quiet, 
inoffensive man, who discovering he could not be happy in a lofty position, 
resigned his dignities and retired to private life. 

Duringf Cromwell's time Puritanism was dominant in Eno-land. All kinds 



100 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

of amusement were forbidden; even Christmas pastimes were prohibited. 
Bear-baiting was put down, not, says Macaulay, because it hurt the bear, but 
because it was pleasing to the people. Coffee and sugar were introduced, 
and the general post office and regular banking-houses established in London. 
John Milton, the " Prince of British Poets," lived and wrote during the 
time of the Commonwealth. Milton was born in London in 1608, his father 
being a scrivener and a man of " plentiful estate." He was educated at Cam- 
bridge, and on completing his studies retired to a country house of his 
father, where he spent five years, reading classic authors and composing 
" Comus," " Lycidas," "Arcades," " L' Allegro," and " II Penseroso." In 1641 he 
engaged in the political and religious controversies of the times, on the side 
of the Commonwealth, and his pen is said to have been as terrible as Oliver's 
sword. Unceasing study affected his sight, and in 1654 he became totally 
blind. After the restoration of Charles II. he retired from public view and 
produced his immortal works, " Paradise Lost " and " Paradise Regained." 
"Paradise Lost" was published in 1667. He received five pounds from the 
publishers for the copyright, and a promise of five pounds more when 1,300 
copies should have been sold. He died in 1674, leaving property of the value 
of ^1,500. Wordsworth says of him: "Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt 
apart." Dryden, in associating him with Homer and Virgil, says : 

" Three poets, in three distant ages born, 
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn ; 
The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, 
The next in majesty, in both the last. 
The force of nature could not further go, 
To make a third she joined the other two." 



CHARLES II. 1660— 1685. 

Man is a creature of extremes. During the Commonwealth England was 
under the somewhat gloomy rule of Puritanical fanaticism ; now she rebounded 
under Charles to the opposite extreme of unbounded license. Unfortunately, 
in her sovereign she found an example to justify her in the wildest indul- 
gences. Gay, jovial, unprincipled, witty, denying himself no pleasure, his char- 
acter is thus summed up in the elegiac quatrain written by the witty Rochester 
on the door of his bed-chamber : 

" Here lies our Sovereign Lord the King, 
Whose word no man relies on ; 
He never says a foolish thing. 
Nor ever does a wise one." 




L'Vtlx'jiiEi-kli? 
LCLiilil .I'lijI.'' ■ 



( lOl ) 



102 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



More tersely yet he describes him as "a merry monarch; scandalous, but 
poor." 

Never was monarch more enthusiastically received than Charles on his re- 
turn from exile to London. Looking at the exulting masses the king quaintly 
remarked that he could not conceive why he had stayed away from them so 
long. 

One of the first acts of Charles and his Parliament was to bring to trial all 
concerned in the execution of his father. Several were executed, others im- 
prisoned or fined, and many fled. This 
settled, he looked out for a wife, think- 
ing much more of the dowry than the 
disposition or person of the lady. He 
selected the richest princess in Europe, 
Catherine of Portugal, married her, 
and forthwith neglected her, and pro- 
ceeded to surround her with mistresses 
and dissipate her fortune. A great 
naval war with Holland resulted only 
in several desperate conflicts at sea, 
neither party deriving advantage from 
the contests. Two great domestic 
calamities mark this reign — the plague 
and the great fire in London. It was 
in 1665 that the plague broke out in 
the month of April among the poor of 
St. Giles. All precautions to check it were ineffectual. It did its work with 
fearful rapidity. When a person was found to be seized, the door was fastened 
up, marked with a red cross with the words " God have mercy on us," and no 
one was allowed to go in or out. Food was set down outside the door, and 
carts came round to take away the dead, who were all buried in long trenches. 
The court and all who were able left the city, the grass growing green in the 
streets. The effect on different minds was remarkable ; some employed their 
time in religious exercises, others plunged into the wildest dissipation, the 
solemn stillness being occasionally broken by sounds of unhallowed merri- 
ment from taverns and haunts of vice. Over a hundred thousand persons 
died in London alone, and similar ravages occurred in the other large towns of 
the kingdom. 

Next year the great fire occurred, which burnt down whole streets and 
even destroyed St. Paul's Cathedral. It probably did good by clearing away 
many dirty streets and narrow alleys, where plague might have lingered; not 
the less it was a fearful misfortune. The king and his brother gained much 
favor by their presence at the fire and doing their utmost to stay it. It was 




CHARLES II. 



ENGLAND. 103 

checked at last by blowing up large areas with gunpowder. The monument 
on Fish-street Hill was erected (i 671-1677) to commemorate the fire. 

Like his father and Laud, Charles tried to force Episcopacy on Scotland, 
and the poor people who resisted were subjected to cruel persecution, the de- 
tails of which will be given under the history of that country. 

The king had no children, and a story was circulated that Charles was to 
be murdered, and his brother, a Roman Catholic, set on the throne. Charles 
laughed at it and said, " No one would kill me to make you king, James." 
Not the less, when public clamor demanded the lives of the suspected persons, 
Charles in his easy, selfish way, did not put out a hand to save them. 

A real plot, called the Rye-house Plot was formed to compel the king to 
make his illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth, his heir. Lord Russell and 
others joined it from their hatred to Catholicism. The plot was discovered and 
its leaders executed. When Lord Russell was tried, his wife. Lady Rachel, sat 
beside him all the time and was his great comfort. Monmouth was pardoned, 
but fled to Holland. 

Charles is said to have spent the last Sunday of his life in playing cards 
and listening to idle songs. Struck with apoplexy, he sent for a Catholic priest 
and was received into the church which he had believed in without daring to 
acknowledge the fact, for fear of losing his crown. 

" Paradise Lost," Milton's grand work, was really written in this reign. A 
scarcely less famed literary production was the "Pilgrim's Progress," by John 
Bunyan. Originally a travelling tinker of loose habits, Bunyan on being con- 
verted became a member of the Baptist Church, of which he was chosen to be 
the preacher. Being convicted for holding conventicles, he spent twelve years 
in Bedford Jail, where he laid all posterity under obligations by writing this 
marvellous allegory. 

A standing army was established by Charles in times of peace as well as 
of war. Tea was brought to England by the Dutch East India Company. The 
best law passed was the Habeas Corpus Act. The Quakers appeared as a 
new sect in this reign, and were shamefully persecuted, which drove William 
Penn with many followers to seek refuge in America, that refuge of the 
oppressed. 

JAMES II. 1685— 1688. 

James was really a better man than his brother. He was, at least, open 
and honest in joining the church in which he believed ; but he was a grave, 
sad, stern man, and people disliked him because he had not the graces of his 
light-hearted, gay, unprincipled brother. 

The Duke of Monmouth attempted a rising, but his friends being routed at 
Sedgemoor, he was taken prisoner and executed. The royal vengeance was 



104 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



now let loose on the adherents of Monmouth. Sir George Jeffreys, the chief- 
justice, was sent to try all who had been concerned, from Winchester to Exeter, 
and he hung so many, and treated all so savagely, that his progress was called 
the "bloody assize." James now issued an edict that a person might be 
chosen to any office in the state whether he were a member of the established 
church or no, and ordered it to be read in the churches. Archbishop Sancroft 
objected, and he and six bishops presented a pedtion praying the king that 
they should not be forced to read it. With the hereditary absolutism of the 
Stuarts, James committed all the seven bishops to the tower, and had them 
tried for libel. England was deeply stirred, and there was general exultation 
when an honest jury gave a verdict of " not guilty." 

James was twice married. His first wife was an English woman and a Prot- 
estant, and the two daughters she bore him were brought up as Protestants. 
The eldest, Mary, married her cousin. Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of 
Holland ; Ann's husband, Prince George of Denmark, was also a Protestant. 
James' second wife was an Italian princess and a Catholic. So long as James 
had no son, the people bore with him, as he was growing old, in the hope of 
getting a Protestant sovereign in William at his death. But at length a son 
was born of the second marriage. Forthwith correspondence was opened 
with the Prince of Orange, who, on December 5th, 1688, landed at Torbay, 
Devonshire. People of all classes flocked to him. It was but three years 
from the bloody assize, and people had not forgotten it in those parts. James 
fled to France, and the English Revolution was accomplished. 



WILLIAM (AND MARY). 



1689 — 1702. 



On the day of James' departure 
the Dutch sovereign entered the pal- 
ace as if he were hereditary king. It 
was proposed to crown both Mary 
and her husband, but William refused 
to accept the crown unless he were 
sole monarch. The people, however, 
conditioned that he should sign a bill 
of rights securing them against fur- 
ther encroachments by the sovereign. 
This " Bill of Rights " was, in fact, a 
view and more complete Magna 
Charta. Toleration was proclaimed, 
as also the liberty of the press. 

But James had still many friends in 




WIL.L.IAM in. (OF ORANOE). 



ENGLAND. 



105 



Ireland, known by the title of Jacobites. All Roman Catholics were, of course, 
of this party, but there were many Protestants, especially of the aristocracy, 
also well-affected towards him. It was, therefore, judged that if James ap- 
peared in Ireland, that country would rise in his behalf. Louis XIV. furnished 
him with a small army, which on his landing was largely reinforced by Irish- 
men. William hurried over to meet him with both English and Dutch troops, 
and on July 12th, 1690, James was totally defeated by the Prince of Orange at 
the Battle of the Boyne. To this day the extreme Protestants of Ireland call 
themselves Orangemen, and parade on the anniversary of the batde, wearing 
bouquets of orange-lilies. 

A rising of the Scots under Dundee was brought to nought by that leader's 
death at Killiecrankie. 




COSTUMES, TIME OF WILLIAM AND MARY. 

Towards the end of William's reign a European war broke out on the sub- 
ject of the succession to the crown of Spain, whose king had died childless. 
The King of France had married a sister, and claimed the crown for his erand- 
son. William was prepared to take part against France. Just as the war 
broke out, in riding near Hampton Court, he had his collar-bone broken by a 
fall from his horse, which trod on a mole-hill, in consequence of which he died. 
A favorite toast with the Jacobites, for well nigh a century after, was, " the 
little gentleman with the velvet coat," 



106 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



QUEEN ANNE. 



1702 — 1714. 



Of course James, son of James II., was the legitimate heir to the throne. 
But it was now the law of England that none but a Protestant should inherit 
the throne, and James was Catholic. Anne, married to Prince George of 
Denmark, therefore succeeded. The war of the Spanish succession was now 
raging, and England was deeply engaged in it. The Duke of Marlborough 
won many victories over the French in Germany, among which those at Blen- 
heim and Ramilies were most 
famed. Gibraltar was taken 
in I 704, by a combined Dutch 
and English fleet, and has re- 
mained in the possession of 
England ever since. 

A yet more important oc- 
currence was the union of Eng- 
land and Scotland. Since the 
succession of James I. they 
had been ruled by one sov- 
ereign, but they had still sep- 
arate legislative assemblies. 
The English thought it best 
that there should be but one 
Parliament in London, to 
which the Scotch should send 
representatives. They send 
now seventy-two. The Scotch, 
however, were to retain many 
of their old laws, have their 
own national church, and, in 
short, enjoy practical inde- 
pendence in local affairs. This union, though at first unpopular in Scodand, has 
conferred unquestioned benefits on, and proved a blessing to, both countries. 
Well had it been for England, had its union with Ireland been accomplished 
under similar conditions. The union with Scotland was completed on May 
1st, 1707. Queen Anne died in 1714. 

Anne's reign was rendered illustrious by some of the greatest names, both 
in literature and science, which England has produced. Foremost among 
these is that of the great mathematician and philosopher. Sir Isaac Newton. 
Born at Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in 1 640, he studied at Cambridge Uni- 
versity, where he distinguished himself by his profound mathematical learning. 




QUEEN ANNE. 



ENGLAND. 



107 



Returning home to Woolsthorpe he pursued original investigations, and one 
day, sitting in his garden there, the fall of an apple suggested to him the most 
macrnificent discovery of science — the law of universal gravitation. He also 
investioated the laws of light, and much improved the telescope. The prin- 
cipal results of his labors are embodied in a great work entitled " Prin- 
cipia." He died in 1727, and his remains received a resting-place in West- 
minster Abbey. Well has Pope said of him : 

" Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night ; 
God said, ' Let Newton be ! ' and there was light." 




COSTUMES OF ANNE'S TIME. 



Space permits us to enumerate only a few more of the illustrious names 
of this brilliant era. Eminent among these were John Dryden and Alexander 
Pope. Dryden was born of good family in 1 63 1 . He studied at Cambridge, 
and there he laid the foundation of that learning which enabled him to enrich 
his prefaces with unrivalled discussions on literary methods. The most dis- 
honorable part in Dryden's character was his political tergiversation. He 
wrote his ' Heroic Stanzas " in honor of Cromwell, and hailed the return of 
Charles II. with his "Astraea Redux." He was distinguished alike as a heroic, 
didactic and satirical poet, and as a dramatist. His verses on "Alexander's 
Feast" have won universal fame. He died in 1700. 

Alexander Pope was born in London in 1688, of Roman Catholic parents, 
to which faith he adhered. His father, a linen merchant, left considerable 
means, and the poet acquired a delightful abode at Twickenham, where he 



108 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

continued till his death In 1744. He was a poet almost from Infancy, "lisping 
In numbers, for the numbers came," and surpassed all his contemporaries In 
metrical harmony and correctness. Among his earlier pieces we note his 
" Essay on Criticism," " Rape of the Lock," " Windsor Forest," " Epistle to 
Eloisa " and " Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady." His famous translation of 
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey netted for him the hitherto unexampled sum of 
upwards of ^8,000. The poet expressed his gratitude In the well-known 

couplet: 

"And thanks to Homer, since I live and thrive, 
Indebted to no prince or peer alive." 

In 1 735 appeared his " Essay on Man," full of splendid passages of mingled 
sweetness and dignity, as seen In the following: 

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast; 
Man never is. but always to be blessed. 
The soul uneasy and confined from home, 
Rests and expatiates in a life to come." 

His " Dunclad " exhibits his powers as a satirist. 

Other great luminaries of this reign were : Joseph Addison, editor of the 
Spectator, the most elegantly correct of all England's prose writers ; Daniel 
Defoe, author of "Robinson Crusoe," the most realistic descrlber of scenes 
real or Imaginary ; and the unrivalled satirist. Dean Swift, whose most popular 
work, "Gulliver's Travels," has amused and delighted generations of children, 
young and old. 

GEORGE I. 1 714— 1727. 

Anne was the last of the Stuart dynasty to sit on the British throne. Her 
unfortunate brother, James III. (the child born to James II. from his second 
marriage), still wandered an exile In France and Italy. He had married a 
princess belonging to the Polish house of SobieskI, and had a son Charles 
Edward. By an act, called the "Act of Settlement," the succession was 
limited to the Princess Sophia (grand daughter of James I.) and her heirs, 
being Protestants. The son of this princess was George, Duke of Brunswick 
and Elector of Hanover, and he, accordingly, on Anne's death, was called to 
the throne, to the exclusion of the Stuarts, father and son. George was 
a heavy, dull man, Ignorant of English, whose heart never warmed to 
his new subjects, nor theirs to him. To tjie last he preferred .his native 
Germany to England. There still existed many Jacobites (as the adher- 
ents of the exiled Stuarts were called) In the kingdom, particularly in 
Ireland, In the north of England, where many great families were Catholic, 
and In the Highlands of Scotland, where devotion to a hereditary chief was 
the cardinal virtue. In 1715 the Earl of Mar raised the standard of rebellion 



ENGLAND. 109 

at Brsemar, close to Balmoral, where Queen Victoria has her Highland home, 
and the clansmen flocked to him in thousands. F"orthwith he marched south- 
ward and was met by the Duke of Argyll, at the head of a royalist army, at 
Sheriffmuir, near Dunblane. There was fought an indecisive batde, in which 
the left wing of either host fled in headlong flight, while the right wings were 
victorious. This fight has been graphically portrayed in a well-known half- 
humorous, half satirical Scottish song : 

" Some say that we ran, and some say that they ran. 
And some say that nane ran ava', man ; 
But of a'e thing I'm sure, that at Sheriffmuir 
A battle there was that I saw, man. 
And we wan and they ran, and they wan and we ran, 
And we ran and they ran awa', man." 

This checked Mar's southward progress, and his army disbanded itself. 

At the same time a number of noblemen and gentlemen of the south of 
Scotland and north of England — at the head of whom were the Earl of Der- 
wentwater, the Lords Nithsdale, Kenmare and Carnwath — proclaimed James 
as King of England and, joined by 2,000 Highlanders, marched south as far as 
Preston, where, being cooped up, they surrendered at discretion on the very 
day of Mar's ineffective batde at Sheriffmuir. The leaders paid for their 
treason with their lives. 

The remainder of George's life was passed in tranquillity. He died at 
Osnalrack, on his way towards his beloved Hanover, in 1727, and was suc- 
ceeded by a son of the same name. 

This reign saw the rise and development of Methodism. At the beginning 
of the eighteenth century England was spiritually moribund. The revival of 
religion began with a small group of Oxford students, among whom three 
figures detach themselves from the group. Whitfield, whose preaching pro- 
duced an excitement such as England had never seen before ; Charles Wesley, 
who came to add sweetness to this sudden and starding light, and John Wes- 
ley, who embodied in himself not this or that side of the vast movement, but 
was the movement itself In power as a preacher he stood next to Whitfield ; 
as a hymn-writer he was second only to his brother Charles, while he pos- 
sessed qualities in which both were deficient — an indefatigable industry, cool 
judgment, and a faculty for organization. He had, besides, a learning and skill 
in writing which no other of the Methodists (as he and his party were called) 
could lay claim to. His life, from 1703 to 1791, almost covers the century, 
and the Methodist body had passed through every phase of its history ere he 
sank into the grave at the age of eighty-eight. The influence of this body of 
earnest Christians on the spiritual life of the middle and lower classes in Eng- 
land cannot be overestimated. Hitherto they had been all but ignored by 



110 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

the aristocratic church. No man cared for their souls. When they found 
men who spoke to them Hlce brethren and sisters, with true earnestness, power, 
and love, they " received the word gladly." In Wales, especially, these evan- 
gelical men swept all before them. 



GEORGE II. 1727— 1760. 

This king, like his father, pretended to no accomplishments beyond those 
of a soldier. In his own words he had neither knowledge of nor taste for 
either poetry or painting. A war having broken out in Germany, over the 
succession to the Empire, France and England, as usual, took different sides. 
George was present at the battle of Dellingen, and, with the aid of the Earl of 
Stair, won it. This was the last fight in which a king of England took per- 
sonal part. His son, the Duke of Cumberland, was shortly thereafter defeated 
with great loss by the French at Fontenoy, in 1745. This defeat encouraged 
Charles Edward, son of (the so-called) James III., to make another attempt 
to win back the throne of his fathers. He landed in the West Highlands and 
the chieftains, followed by their clans, flocked to his standard, so that he shortly 
found himself at the head of some thousands of mountaineers. His exploits 
and adventures belong as much to the history of Scotland as that of England, 
and will be there narrated. Suffice it to say, his Highlanders were utterly de- 
feated at Culloden, near Inverness, in April, 1 746. The subsequent barbari- 
ties of Cumberland have caused his name to be execrated in Scotland to the 
present day. 

In the reign of this George the foundation of England's great Indian Empire 
was laid by a brave officer named Clive, who rose to be a peer and governor- 
general of India. The most striking episode in this war is that of the Black 
Hole of Calcutta. A native Indian prince, at the head of a large army, sud- 
denly came down on this city, the capital of the English possessions. Most 
of the English escaped by getting on board ships in the Hooghly. Those who 
could not — 146 in number — were seized and, in the hottest season of the year, 
thrust into a room twenty feet square, with only two small grated windows, 
named the " Black Hole." The heat and want of pure air speedily deprived 
some of existence ; others died raving mad, their entreaties for water being 
mocked at, and in the morning only twenty-three were found alive. 

The vast territory of Canada, belonging to France, was also added to the 
British dominions. The final and decisive battle in this war was fought out 
between French and English troops under the walls of Quebec, September 1 2th, 
1759, the gallant English General Wolfe falling at the very moment of victory. 
As he lay on the ground he heard the officers, who stood sorrowing around 
him, exclaim, "They run, they run ! " "Who run ? " asked the expiring hero. 



ENGLAND. Ill 

<'The French." "Then I die happy." In this American war with the French, 
General Washington, then a young- officer, first signahzed himself, fighting on 
the side of England. 

George II. died in October, i 760. 

In this reign the British Museum was formed, turnpikes established, and 
canal-making begun. One of the most remarkable changes was the intro- 
duction of the new style of reckoning time. Julius Caesar fixed the Julian 
year as consisting of 365 days, 6 hours. The true year consists of 365 
days, 5 hours, 49 minutes. Hence, in the eighteen hundred years which 
had elapsed from the time of Caesar, an error of eleven days had crept in. 
This was now rectified by causing the second day of January, 1752, to be called 
the 13th. At the same time the year was made to begin on the ist of Janu- 
ary, and not, as formerly, on the 25th of March. 

In art, Hogarth, the celebrated painter and engraver, was pre-eminently 
distinguished for representing in pictures engraved by himself the follies and 
vices of his time. In 1733 appeared his six pictures of "The Harlot's Prog- 
ress," and these were followed by similar representations of dissipation and 
folly, such as "The Rake's Progress," "Enraged Musicians," "Marriage a la 
Mode," "The Election." He died in 1764, and was interred at Chiswick. 
His monument bears an inscription by his friend Garrick. Garrick ranks as 
one of the greatest — probably the very greatest — of English actors. He ex- 
hibited what has been called a Shakespearean universality, being equally at 
home in the highest flights of tragedy, and the lowest depths of farce. He 
wrote also forty plays, some original, some adaptations of old plays. Samuel 
Johnson, the lexicographer, distinguished both as a poet and prose-writer, and 
yet more distinguished as a conversationalist, as he is depicted to us in the 
pages of Boswell ; and Goldsmith, one of England's most pleasing poets, novel- 
ists and dramatists — witness his " Deserted Village," " Vicar of Wakefield " 
and " She Stoops to Conquer " — are also to be reckoned among the lights of 
this reign. Other great names are Hume, the historian; Fielding and Smollet, 
novelists ; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, president of the Royal Academy, and 
prince of English portrait painters. 



GEORGE III. 1760— 1820. 

Personally, the most remarkable things about this monarch — a respectable, 
dull, obstinate man — were the facts that he reigned longer than any other 
British sovereign, and that for the last ten years of his life he suffered from 
mental derangement, so that he could take no part in public affairs. The 
most distinguished political character in this reign was William Pitt, probably 
the ablest prime-minister that ruled England from the days of Wolsey. He 



112 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

was by natvire a liberal man. and but for the obstinacy of the king would 
have emancipated the Catholics and introduced other measures tending to ex- 
tend the boundaries of human freedom, for his was too clear an intellect not to 
see whither the world was trending. Had his counsels been followed it is 
doubtful whether even our War of Independence would have found a place in 
history ; certainly it would have been fought out on some other issue than that 
of taxation without representation. But the history of this war belongs to 
American history and will be dealt with there. Suffice it to say that George's 
pig-headed obstinacy lost England the brightest jewel in her diadem. Of this 
loss the honest poet Burns speaks thus, in his birthday address to this 

monarch : 

." 'Tis very true, my sovereign king, 
My skill may well be doubted ; 
But facts are chiels that winna ding, 
And downa be disputed. 

" Your royal nest beneath your wing 
Is e'en right reft an 'clouted, 
And now the third part of the string, 
And less, will gang about it 
Than did a'e day." 

France and Spain had aided the United States, and this provoked war with 
them, in which these countries suffered greatly at sea by the gallantry of the 
British fleet under Byron, Hood, and Rodney ; but the most brilliant exploit 
was the defence of Gibraltar by Elliot against the combined fleets of these two 
powers. Peace was concluded in 1 783, when American independence was 
conclusively acknowledged. 

For ten years Britain had peace, when the outbreak of the French Revo- 
lution, and the terrible scenes that followed thereon, especially the execution 
of the king and queen, brought on the longest and most formidable war in 
which Britain was ever engaged. It was by the statesmanship displayed in 
this war that Pitt earned for himself the titles of "the Heaven-sent minister " 
and " die pilot that weathered the storm." The details of this war will better 
appear elsewhere. Several British commanders, military and naval, won glory 
in the struggle, as Abercrombie, Moore, St. Vincent, and Hyde Parker, but the 
two names that stand out above all others are those of Nelson and Welling- 
ton. The crowning sea-fight of Trafalgar, won by the former, shattered the 
navies of France and .Spain ; Waterloo, won by the latter, sent the Emperor 
Napoleon to St. Helena, and closed the war. 

The great Irish Rebellion of 1798 will find its place in our history of Ireland. 
Suffice it to say here that in 1801 the Irish Parliament in Stephen's Green, 
Dublin, came to an end and Ireland was reunited to Britain. 

As already indicated, George III. was laid aside during the last ten years 




LORD BYRON. 



[lUj 



114 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

of his reign by mental derangement, during which the government was carried 
on by a regency under the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. 

To specify with any degree of adequacy the progress made in science, the 
mechanical inventions, the development of manufactures, the spread of trade 
and commerce, and the manifold improvements in social life during this reign, 
would demand a large volume. Chief among these advances was the practi- 
cal discovery of the steam-engine by James Watt. This mechanician, engineer 
and man of science was born at Greenock, Scotland, in 1736, his father being 
a respectable merchant and magistrate of the burgh. He early manifested a 
turn for mathematics and a great interest in machines, and in 1757 was ap- 
pointed mathematical instrument-maker to the University of Glasgow. Living 
in the college in close intercourse with the professors, with access to books, 
he became a diligent experimenter in the application of science to the arts. 
In 1763 a Newcomen air-engine for pumping water out of mines was sent to 
him for repair, and this set him thinking of how steam could be applied for 
turning machinery in mills. In 1769 he took out a patent for an invention for 
this purpose, and in subsequent years, down to 1785, obtained patents for a 
series of inventions perfecting his idea. In 1774 he had become partner with 
Matthew Bolton, of Soho, near Birmingham, and in this work his first engine 
was constructed. His discoveries revolutionized the manufacturing industries 
of the world. Acquiring a competency he retired from business in i8oo, and 
died at Heathfield, Staffordshire, in 1819. Mr. Arkwright, afterwards Sir 
Richard Arkwright, made great improvements in cotton manufacture by the 
invention of new machinery, while Mr. Wedgewood made no less impor- 
tant improvements in the manufacture of china and porcelain. Geographical 
science was advanced by Captain Cook, who "made three voyages around the 
world. 

The most original and vigorous thought of this period found its expression 
in poetry, and amongst its great poets the most noteworthy are Byron, Cole- 
ridge, Wordsworth, Scott, the last of whom is at the head of all the writers of 
prose fiction. Byron was born in London, 1788, his father being a profligate 
officer of the guards, his mother of the family of the Gordons of Gight, Aber- 
deenshire. His granduncle, whom he succeeded in the title, killed a man in 
a drunken brawl, was tried before the House of Lords and acquitted, but was 
of such a character that till his death he was known as " wicked Lord Byron." 
Byron's father dissipated his wife's fortune and deserted her, whereupon she 
retired, with her little lame boy, to Aberdeen, to bring him up on her reduced 
income of /'130 a year. Upon succeeding to the title in his eleventh year, he 
was sent to Harrow School and thence to Cambridge. In early youth he 
published a collection of poems under the title of " Hours of Idleness," which 
were savagely handled by the Edinburgh Review. By way of retort Byron 
wrote his scorching satire, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." To use 



ENGLAND. 115 

his own phrase, he rose one morning and found himself famous. With the 
wreath of triumph on his brow he wandered, for two years, over Spain, 
Albania, Greece, Turkey and Asia Minor, and on his return gave to the 
world the two first cantos of his great poem, " Childe Harold." Every one 
saw the " Childe" was himself In rapid succession followed the "Giaour," 
" Bride of Abydos," " Manfred," " Mazeppa," " Don Juan," and numerous 
other pieces. He returned to Greece, was appointed commander-in-chief of 
an expedition to Lepanto, but sickened and died in 1824, aged thirty-six years. 
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was born at Ottery, Devonshire, in 1772, his 
father being a clergyman of the English church. He studied at Cambridge, 
but growing tired of college life enlisted as a private soldier in a dragoon 
regiment. Here he was miserable, and one of the officers, a scholar, croino- into 

^-^ ''00 

the stables one morning, found chalked up the following sentence in Latin: 

" Eheu ! quam infortunii miserrimum est fuisse beatum ! " 

Through this officer's influence he was discharged. Afterwards he formed an 
intimate friendship with Southey and Wordsworth, and settling near each 
other they formed the school of the " Lake Poets." The use of opium 
shattered his system physically and mentally, and he entered the family of a 
Mr. Gillem, Highgate, where he was cared for till his death. His prose works 
are admirable alike for originality, power of thought, and felicity of diction, 
but it is on his " Christabel" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" that his 
fame now mainly rests. As a conversationalist he was second only to Samuel 
Johnson. He died in 1834. 

William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland, 1770, his 
father being law-agent for the Earl of Lonsdale. The poet studied at Hawks- 
worth School and Cambridge University. He visited France in 1791, and 
hailed the French Revolution with enthusiasm : 

" Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, 
But to be young was very heaven." 

Receiving two small legacies he devoted himself to study and seclusion, 
forming a close friendship with Coleridge and- Southey. He is regarded as 
the head of the " Lake School." At Rydal Mount, on the beautiful lake of 
Grasmere, he lived for thirty-one placid, happy years. Of this period he says: 

" Long have I loved what I behold, 

The night that calms, the day that cheers. 

The common growth of mother-earth 

Suffices me — her tears, her mirth, 
Her humblest mirth and tears. 



116 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

"The dragon's wing, the magic ring 

I shall not covet for my dower, 
If I along that lowly way 
With sympathetic heart may stray 

And with a soul of power." 

Even more beautifully he elsewhere expresses his sympathy with all the 
shows of nature : 

" To me the meanest flower that grows can give 
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." 

Being appointed distributer of stamps for the county of Westmoreland, he 
was placed beyond the frowns of Fortune, and on the death of his friend 
Southey was made poet-laureate of England, with an income of ^300 a year. 
He passed away peacefully in 1850, in his eightieth year. His poems were 
mostly written in the open air amid the scenes he loved so well, and which he 
has so tenderly depicted. His greatest work is " The E.xcursion," a philosoph- 
ical poem in blank verse. His other pieces are numerous, among which 
we may specify: "The White Doe of Rylstone," "Sonnets on the River 
Duddon," "The Waggoner," "Peter Bell," "Yarrow Revisited." 

Sir Walter Scott, being a Scotchman, we refer to Scotland. 

We cannot close this reign without referring to Chatham, Fox and Burke, 

three of the greatest orators of all time. Bui-ke, had he not been a politician, 

would have been one of the lights of literature, as is evidenced by his grand 

" Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," and many other papers. Goldsmith 

says of him, he 

" Gave up for party what was meant for mankind." 



GEORGE IV. 1820— 1830. 

Happy is the reign that has no history. The fourth George's reign merits 
this benediction so far as wars and outward complications were concerned. 
Otherwise it was marked by the same fertility of mechanical invention, the 
same advance in material prosperity that characterized that of his father. The 
grand political feature in this reign was Catholic emancipation, gained for his 
Catholic fellow-countrymen by Daniel O'Connell, the Emancipator of Ireland. 
This measure passed both houses of Parliament and received the royal assent 
in 1829. George had considerable ability and address, and from his personal 
attractions and his position, it was the habit to style him " The first gentleman 
of Europe." Allowing for the difference in the customs and modes of thought 
of the ages in which they lived, George IV. and the second Charles were very 
closely akin in character. His treatment of his wife at and after his coronation 
exposed him to considerable obloquy. He died in 1830. 



ENGLAND. 117 

This reign was notable for the spread of education among the working 
classes and the establishment of societies for the diffusion of useful knowledge, 
as well as for the mitigation of the severity of the laws. The first steam-boats 
that worked for hire in Britain appeared on the Clyde, Scotland, in 1811 ; in 
1822 an iron steam-boat was launched on the Thames to run between Eng- 
land and France, and four years later a voyage was performed by steam to 
the West Indies. Atlantic steam navigation came later. Railways were 
begun in this reign, but there was little passenger travel on them till after 
George's death. Emigration to the United States, Canada, Australia and 
South Africa was largely developed. George made two journeys — one to 
Scotland and the other to Ireland — he being the first of the House of Bruns 
wick who ever visited either of these two kingdoms. 



WILLIAM IV. 1830— 1837. 

George IV. left no child, and was succeeded by his next surviving brother, 
William, Duke of Clarence. He had been a sailor and was an elderly man 
ere he mounted the throne. He was a slow, good-natured man, inclined to 
befriend the people. The leading political measure in his days was the Reform 
Bill. The English House of Commons is composed of members represent- 
ing burghs and members representing counties, with a few representatives of 
universities. Hitherto the right of electing members had been restricted to 
a few burgfesses in each bureh and to free-holders in counties. Some ancient 
burghs sending members to Parliament had become so much depopulated 
that the owners of the soil nominated the persons to represent them. These 
were called "pocket burghs" or "rotten burghs." Old Sarum, for example, 
sent two members and had not one inhabitant. On the other hand several 
great modern cities, as Manchester and Birmingham, were not represented at 
all. The Reform Bill of 1832 conferred the right of voting on every person 
paying ^10 of yearly rent in burghs, and ^50 in counties. At the same time 
fifty-six burghs in England and Wales were entirely disfranchised, and forty- 
two new ones created. Since then new reform measures have extended the 
franchise, so that it is now practically universal. Another great measure of 
this reign was the liberation of the West Indian slaves, at an expense to the 
mother country of ^20,000,000 paid to the slave-owners. William died in 
1837. He was the last English king who reigned over the State of Hanover. 
The Salic law prevails there, so that it cannot be ruled by a woman. 

The earliest great railway for passenger traffic as well as freight, that, 
namely, between Liverpool and Manchester, was formally opened September 
15th, 1830. The London and Birmingham Railway, the first that had a metro- 
politan terminus, was opened in 1838. 



118 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



VICTORIA. 1837. . 

Queen Victoria is daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, fourth son of 
George III. In 1818 he married the Princess of Laningen, and on May 24th, 
1819, was born his daughter, Alexandrina Victoria, who on the death of 
WilHam, in 1837, succeeded to the throne, her father being dead. She was 
crowned, amid general rejoicing, in Westminster Abbey, June 28th, 1838. In 
February, 1840, she married Albert, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and 
no woman had ever a more faithful husband. The queen's eldest daughter, 
the Princess Royal, was born November 21st, 1840, and her eldest son, Albert 
Edward, Prince of Wales, November 9th, 1841. She had seven other 
children, three sons and four daughters, the youngest, the Princess Beatrice, 
being born April 14th, 1857. In January, 1858, the princess royal was 
married to the crown-prince of Prussia, and in March, 1863, the Prince of 
Wales married the Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The Queen was left a 
widow by the sudden death of her husband, the Prince-Consort, on December 
14th, 1 86 1. The only child of the queen who married a subject is the Princess 
Louise, her fourth daughter, who in March, 1871, became the wife of the 
Marquis of Lome, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll. 

The queen had been trained with admirable care and. solicitude by her 
widowed mother, and on reaching the throne in her eighteenth year, she was 
found not only to be mistress of many accomplishments, but to be possessed 
of a sound judgment, an excellent heart, and a real desire to promote the 
well-being of her subjects. In all her laudable efforts she was not only en- 
couraged, but more generally guided by her consort, than whom England 
never had a more intelligent ruler. He devoted himself specially to schemes 
for enlightening the people and advancing the arts of peace. In May, 1857, 
there was opened, under his auspices, in a magnificent structure of glass and 
iron (called the "Crystal Palace"), in Hyde Park, London, the first of those 
great international industrial exhibitions or " world's fairs," which has had so 
many imitators. His object was not only to promote the material welfare of 
the different peoples of the world, but to unite mankind, more and more, into 
one great family. 

Only two years after this broke out the great Crimean War. Turkey had 
long been in a decaying state ; and one day the Emperor of Russia asked the 
English ambassador if he did not think the Turkish power a very sick man 
that would soon be dead. The ambassador gave the emperor to understand 
that the sick man, if die he must, was to be allowed to die in peace. In reality 
neither England nor France could bear that Russia should g^ain a great acces- 
sion to its power on the Mediterranean. In consequence when Russia attacked 
Turkey, English and French (and latterly Italian) armies were sent to defend 



& 




-i'I\\.^-^^^|l||; 



PRINCE OF \A'AL.ES. 



(119) 



120 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

her. It was judged best to carry the war into Russia itself, and the result 
was the landing in the Crimea of the English and French armies, under 
Lord Raglan and Marshal St. Arnaud, in the autumn of 1854. A great 
victory was gained at the landing, in the storming of the heights of Alma. 
Sebastopol was besieged, and obstinately defended for a year. During the 
winter the English soldiers suffered horribly through the ineptness of the 
commissariat and other departments, and the rascality of contractors. Flor- 
ence -Nightingale came to their aid as a ministering angel, and by her deeds 
of mercy to the sick and wounded earned a name that will never die. There 
were two more famous battles. One was that of Balaklava, in which six 
hundred English horsemen charged, by a blunder of some commander, a whole 
battery of Russian cannon. This is the Charge of the Light Brigade, celebrated 

by Tennyson : 

" Haifa league, half a league, 
Haifa league onward, 
All in the Valley of Death 

Rode the six hundred. 
" Forward the Light Brigade, 
Charge for the guns,' he said ; 
Into the Valley of Death 

Rode the six hundred. 

" Forward, the Light Brigade! ' 
Was there a man dismay'd ? 
Not, tho' the soldier knew 

Some one had blunder'd: 
Their's not to make reply, 
Their's not to reason why, 
Their's but to do or die ; 
Into the Valley of Death 

Rode the six hundred. 

" Flash'd all their sabres bare. 
Flashed as they turn'd in air 
Sabring the gunners there, 
Charging an army, while 

All the world wonder'd : 
Plunged in the battery smoke, 
Right through the line they broke; 
Cossack and Russian 
Reel'd from the sabre stroke 
Shatter'd ami sunder'd. 

"Then they rode back, but not — 
Not the si.K hundred. . . . 
When can their glory fade ? 
O ! the wild charge they made ! 



ENGLAND. 121 

All the world wonder'd. 
Honor the charge they made ! 
Honor the Litjht Brigade, 

Noble six hundred ! " 

The other fight was that of Inkerman, wherein by sheer obstinacy the 
English gained a decisive victory. The capture of the forts defending the 
city, September 8th, 1855, forced the Russians to evacuate it, and a peace was 
soon thereafter made, the Russians agreeing to leave Turkey at peace. 

Scarcely had the rejoicings for the successful issue of the Crimean War 
come to an end, when news reached England of the mutiny of the native 
soldiers (sepoys) in the British army in India. The story of this terrible out- 
break will find place in our account of Hindostan. In the meantime Eng- 
land carried on a successful war with China, and acquired full possession of 
Hong-Kong, and a strip of coast territory on the mainland opposite. In 1868 
took place a war with Theodore, Emperor of Abyssinia, who had shut up some 
missionaries and skilled workmen, invited by him to his capital, Magdala. 
Magdala was taken, the prisoners released, and the war closed with scarce the 
loss of a man. In 1873-74 ^ war with the Ashantees was brought to a suc- 
cessful close. In 1S78, at the end of a sharp war between Russia and Turkey, 
the Island of Cyprus was ceded to England by the Turks, on account of the 
good offices of Mr. Disraeli, the English premier, at the Berlin convention. 
In the same year England went to war with the Afghans, and also with the 
Zulus (a Caffir people of South Africa), ultimatelybringingboth contests to a suc- 
cessful issue. One incident of the last war cast a gloom over England. The 
young Prince Napoleon had obtained leave to go out with the English army 
and take part in the campaign. One day, when out surveying the country, a 
party of natives sprang out of the reeds and long grass upon him, and ere he 
could take horse, slew him. 

Immediately on the cessation of the Zulu campaign, the Boers, the descend- 
ants of Dutch settlers in South Africa, demanded independence, and after a 
short war, this was granted them by Mr. Gladstone, who was then in power. 
Egypt had been for long in a desperate financial position and unable to pay 
the interest due English and French bondholders. A system of " dual con- 
trol" was therefore established, in accordance with which its finances were 
managed by two commissioners — one French, the other English — named by 
the respecdve governments. The Egyptians ill-brooked to see the affairs of 
their country controlled, and many of its offices filled, by foreigners. Troubles 
arose, culminating in a massacre of English and French residents in Alexan- 
dria. This city was cannonaded and captured by the English fleet. The 
Khedive of Egypt professed to be content that his country should remain sub- 
ordinate, but his minister, Arabi Pasha, putting himself at the head of the army, 
took the field against an English land force, which had been despatched to 



122 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

quell disturbances. He was utterly routed by General Wolseley (created 
Lord Wolseley) at» Tel-el-Kebir, and a British force now holds Lower Egypt. 
But in the Soudan a fanatic appeared claiming inspiration, to whom the Arab 
tribes flocked with enthusiasm. He threatened lower Egypt. British troops 
were sent to check him. His followers fought with the desperation of devotees, 
and although his death has brought a lull, the struggle is not yet over. The 
murder of the brave General Gordon, who volunteered to go to Assouan, with 
the view of pacifying the Arab tribes, brought much obloquy on Mr. Glad- 
stone and his ministry, who encouraged him to undertake the mission, and 
then left him to his fate. 

Two men — neither, in the strict sense of the term, an Englishman — have had 
more to do with shaping the policy of England for the last forty years than all 
others combined. These are the late Earl of Beaconsfield and Mr. Gladstone, 
both distinguished in the literary as well as in the political world. 

Benjamin Disraeli (Lord Beaconsfield) was born in 1804, at Bradenham, 
Bucks, England ; son of Isaac Disraeli, author of " Curiosities of Literature," 
etc., a landed proprietor, and a strict Jew of Spanish origin. When but a boy 
of eleven, young Disraeli, with that gift of prescience which distinguished him 
above all men, professed the Christian faith, was baptized, and received into 
the English Church. At the age when most youths go to the University, he 
entered a solicitor's office to qualify himself for a government appointment. 
In 1825 he took the world by surprise by his novel, "Vivian Grey," and this 
was followed at intervals by other brilliant works of fiction, "The Young 
Duke," " Coningsby," " Sybil," " Lothair," etc., etc. 

In 1837 he entered Parliament as a Conservative. His maiden speech, 
conceived in a tone of high-flown eloquence, was received with shouts of 
laughter. Stopping, he for a moment looked calmly around on his derisive 
audience, and then, uttering these remarkable prophetic words, "You will not 
hear me now, but the time will come when you will hear me," took his seat. 
Mr. Disraeli adhered to Sir Robert Peel till that minister adopted the policy 
of free trade, when his unrivalled powers of brilliant invective and polished 
sarcasm raised him to the leadership of the Conservative party. He rose to 
be three times Chancellor of Exchequer in Lord Derby's administrations, and 
in i860 was named by the queen Prime Minister of England, and alternated 
with Mr. Gladstone in that high office till his death. In 1877 he was raised 
to the House of Lords, with the title of Earl Beaconsfield. 

Disraeli's influence over his party, in political matters, may be said to have 
been supreme. In 1866 he prevailed on them to pass a reform bill admitting 
a large body of the working classes to the franchise. Among other measures 
due to him we may note the Congress of Berlin (1878) on the Eastern Question, 
the acquisition of the island of Cyprus by England, and of a paramount influ- 
ence in the Suez Canal. The tact, intellect and genius displayed by him at 




HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, LONDON. 



(123) 



124 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY- 



the congress of plenipotentiaries at Berlin led Prince Bismarck to pronounce 
him the ablest statesman in Europe. On his return, bringing " peace with 
honor," he was created a Knight of the Garter, a D. C. L. of Oxford and 
Edinburgh, and had many other honors conferred on him. He died at 
Hughenden Manor, his hereditary estate in Bucks county, in 1881. 

Since the days of Pitt and Fox, England had never seen two such great 
competing statesmen as Disraeli and Gladstone, 

" Brethren in arms, yet rivals in renown." 

As the former was unchallenged leader of the Conservative party, so Glad- 
stone has been followed with scarcely less unquestioning obedience by the 
Liberals. 

The Right Hon. William Gladstone, scholar, statesman and orator, son of 
Sir John Gladstone, Bart, of Fasque, Kinardineshire, Scotland, was born, 
1809, at Liverpool, where his father, originally from Leith, had won wealth 

and eminence as a West India 
merchant. He was educated at 
Eton and Oxford, closing a bril- 
liant career with a double first 
degree in 1831. In 1832 he 
entered Parliament as a Conserv- 
ative, and rendered Sir Robert 
Peel eloquent and effective aid 
in passing his free trade meas- 
ures through the Commons. Mr. 
Gladstone has held several offices 
in many successive administrations 
from 1834 downwards; as Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer under 
Lord PalmtTston, he manifested 
such mastery of finance that ever 
since he has been regarded as un- 
rivalled in his management of this 
intricate subject. Though Mr. 
Gladstone's early sympathies 
bound him strongly to the High 
GLADSTONE. Churcii and Tory party, the grad- 

ually expanding liberalism of his ideas brought him frequently into opposition 
to his former friends, and eventually, in 1857, he separated himself from the 
Conservative party, but continued to represent Oxford University, till his 
defeat by a Tory candidate in 1S65. After the death of Lord Palmerston he 
became leader of the Liberal party in the Commons, and, since then, he has 




ENGLAND. 125 

been at the head of each Liberal administration. As an orator Mr. Gladstone 
has no rival in Parliament, and in debate it is questionable if any one since 
the days of Burke has equalled him. In 1869 Mr. Gladstone passed a meas- 
ure disestablishing the Episcopal Church of Ireland; in 1870 he passed his 
first Land Bill for Ireland; in 1871 he abolished the army purchase system, 
and in 1872 carried the Ballot Bill. In 1875 he announced his intention of 
retiring from public life, but some proposals of the Disraeli ministry led him 
again, in 1880, to precipitate himself into the political arena, when he made 
his marvellous "Midlothian Campaign." 

The reign of Victoria has been a time of great literary activity, and books 
have multiplied to an unprecedented degree. At the same time it must be 
admitted that the first quarter of the century is richer in names of the highest 
eminence than any subsequent portion of it. No poet approaches the heights 
attained by Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Campbell, Southey, with the single 
exception of Tennyson. This is essentially an age of novels, reviews and 
periodicals. Great names in fiction are Dickens, Thackeray, Bulvver Lytton, 
Miss Bronte and Miss Evans (George Eliot). As historians we quote Hal- 
lam, Macaulay, Carlyle. Ruskin is eminent as a writer on art. In poetry, in 
addition to Tennyson, there are Mr. and Mrs. Browning, Matthew and Edwin 
Arnold. A notice of Carlyle will appear under Scotland. 

Charles Dickens was born at Portsea, Februar)', 181 2. His father was a 
comparatively poor man, a clerk in the navy pay-office, and Charles was set 
to work in a blacking warehouse at six shillings a week. Undoubtedly much 
of his subsequent success was due to his severe experience and training here. 
He learned the many varieties of life, pitiful and laughter-moving, that 
swarmed in the streets of London. His father's circumstances improving, he 
entered an attorney's office, and having mastered short-hand, he spent two 
years in reporting law cases in Doctor's Commons and other courts. At nine- 
teen he entered the gallery of the House of Commons as parliamentary re- 
porter for the newspapers. His life as an author commenced in 1834. In 
1836 appeared his " Sketches by Boz " and the " Pickwick Papers." From 
that moment his fame was established. These were followed by " Oliver 
Twist," " Nicholas Nickleby," " Master Humphrey's Clock," " Martin Chuzzle- 
wit," etc. In 1867-68 he visited the United States, and returned to England 
with ^10,000 as the result of thirty-four readings. He died in June, 1870, and 
received the honor of interment in Westminster Abbey. 

William Makepeace Thackeray was born of a good old English family at 
Calcutta, in 181 1, his father being in the Indian civil service. He left his son 
a fortune of ^20,000. When seven years of age the boy was sent home to be 
educated in the Charterhouse School, London. His ambition was to become 
an artist, and his drawings were quaint, picturesque, truthfull, yet they missed 
the touches of a master-hand. Under the pseudonym of Michael Angelo Tit- 



126 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

marsh he became a contributor to the magazines and published his " Sketch- 
books." His " Snob Papers " and " Jeames' Diary," in Punch, first gave him 
reputation, which was heightened and established by the appearance of " Vanity 
Fair." His remaining leading works are known to all readers — " Pendennis," 
" The Newcomes," " The Virginians," " Esmond," etc. He was cut off in the 
fullness of his powers on the 24th of December, 1863. 

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, poet-laureate of Britain, is son of the Rev. G. C. 
Tennyson, born at his father's parsonage of Somersby, Lincolnshire, in 18 10. 
He was educated by his father and at Cambridge University, where as an 
undergraduate he gained the chancellor's medal for a poem, the subject 
being " Timbuctoo." In 1830 appeared a volume of " Poems, Chiefly Lyrical," 
but it was not till 1842, when a new edition appeared, with several important 
poems added, that his true merit was generally recognized. The author of 
such pieces as the " Mort d'Arthur," " Locksley Hall," the " May Queen " and 
" The Two Voices," was seen to be entitled to the first rank among the Eng- 
lish poets, and this estimate was more than sustained by the works that fol- 
lowed. In 1850 appeared his "In Memoriam," and on the death of Words- 
worth, in 1851, the laureateship fell to him as a matter of course. "In Me- 
moriam " was followed in subsequent years by "Maud," "The Idyls of the 
King," " Enoch Arden," " The Holy Grail," etc. He has also produced some 
dramas. He was raised to the peerage and now enjoys the serene evening 
of his days with " honor, love, obedience, troops of friends," in his pleasant 
residence of Somersby, Isle of Wight. He has also an estate and residence 
in Surrey. 

Not only has there been remarkable progress in the sciences during the 
last three reigns, but many novel theories have been put forth in accord with 
the explanation of natural phenomena. One of the new theories that have 
startled the world is that so ably propounded by Darwin, and accepted by 
many scientists of highest name, foreign as well as British, regarding the 
origin of species. Darwin holds that the various species of plants and 
animals, instead of being each especially created and immutable, have all 
sprung from the lowest form of life, and by continual adaptation, natural .s'elec- 
tion, and survival of the fittest, have gone on developing and improving, and 
are still going on indefinitely, passing from lower forms to higher. Thus, tak- 
ing the highest animal — man — he began as a mass of formless jelly, became 
developed into a mollusc, from that into a fish, a reptile, a quadruped, a mon- 
key, and at last, after myriads of years of development, he attained his present 
state. This is the doctrine of evolution. Scarcely less novel is the doctrine 
of conservation of forces, by which it is shown that light, heat, electricity, are 
all simply modes of motion, and convertible into each other. Chemistry has 
become almost a new science, aided by the revelations of the spectroscope, by 
which, by merely examining the spectrum, or colored image of a luminous 



ENGLAND. 



127 



body refracted through a prism, we can determine its chemical structure. This 
discovery, due to Frauenhofer, a distinguished optician of Munich, enables the 
chemist to determine the constituents not only of bodies at hand, but of the 
sun, stars and planets. The discoveries in magnetism and electricity, by Sir 
William Thomson, Wheatstone, Morse, Bell, and others, and the application 
of these discoveries to practical ends in the telegraphic wires and cables are 
among the most marvellous triumphs of science, and are contributing to unite 
all the civilized nations of the earth into one great family. Scarcely is their 
application in the cases of the telephone, the phonotype, and numerous other 
reproductive appliances less wonderful or less useful to man. Geology, the 
youngest of all the sciences, has also made immense strides, Murchison, 
Lyell, Geikie, being among its most distinguished exponents. Nor in this 




ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON. 



hasty review would it be proper to pass over Owen's contributions to compar- 
ative anatomy and physiology. No notice of English scientific progress, 
however brief, ought to omit the names of Huxley and Tyndall, the two men 
who, by their writings — at once profound, clear, and eloquent — have done 
more to popularize science than almost any other men. Among Huxley's 
works maybe cited " Man's Place in Nature," " Lectures on Comparative Anat- 
omy," " Lessons in Physiology," " Lay Sermons." Tyndall's "Faraday as a 
Discoverer," " Notes on Electricity," " Notes on Light," " Address delivered 
before the British Association," are no less worthy of recognition. One fact 
regarding the last-named eminent man we take pleasure in recording. In the 
course of a tour througii the United States, he netted, after paying expenses, 
$13,000. Not one cent of this did he carry home with him. Before leaving 



128 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

for Europe he placed the amount in the hands of a committee authorized "to 
expend the interest in aid of American students who devote themselves to 
original research." 

The English school of painting or rather of the fine arts is the youngest in 
Europe. In early times foreign artists were employed in the court. Henry 
VIII. secured the services of the German, Hans Holbein; Charles I. patronized 
Rubens and brought over Van Dyck. Sir Godfrey Kneller, a German, and 
court portrait-painter to Charles II., was the last of the foreigners. In 1734- 
1735 from thirty to forty artists combined to establish an academy in London 
for the study of the human figure, Hogarth being at the head of the move- 
ment. This, after thirty-four years, developed into the Royal Academy. At 
first the Enelish artists were much indebted to the French school. Hoearth 
was the first to introduce originality, vigor and true humor into native works, 
in which he has been followed by Wilkie, Leslie, etc. The English school has 
acquired a very high position in portrait-painting, witness the beautiful like- 
'nesses of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Raeburn, etc. In landscape, 
also, England holds a lofty place, as shown by the works of R. Wilson, Gains- 
borough, and especially Turner, who for wide range of subject and rendering 
of atmospheric effect stands alone. Constable, Calcott, Collins, Nasmyth, J. 
Thomson and Muller, also have reached high eminence in this branch. Land- 
seer in animal-painting has scarcely been equalled, and he has many worthy dis- 
ciples. An important department in painting is water-colors, which in Eng- 
land has attained far higher excellence than in any other country. 

We have thus endeavored briefly to give our readers a view of that coun- 
try — England — which, small in itself, has filled a place so large in the world's 
history. That Englishmen are proud of their country and apt to be boastful 
of it, all the world knows. We opened our narrative with a quotation from 
England's greatest literary son, Shakespeare ; we close it with a yet more de- 
tailed and vaunting eulogium, put by him into the mouth of one of his grandest 
historical characters. It, at least, shows us how Englishmen estimate their 
island home : 

"This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle, 
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars 
This other Eden, demi-paradise. 
This fortress built by nature for herself 
Against infection and the hand of war, 
This happy breed of men, this little world, 
This precious stone set in the silver sea. 
Which serves it in the office of a wall . . . 
Against the envy of less happier lands, 
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm — this England." 



IRELAND. 



' Erin, O Erin, thy winter is past. 
And the hope that hved through it shall blossom at last." 

jF all the countries Ireland is pai- excellence the land of 
contrasts. Nowhere else will you find such genuine 
drollery and light-hearted mirth ; nowhere greater 
depths of pathos and heart-rending woe ; nowhere 
else are brighter intellects and keener wits ; nowhere 
minds more beclouded by ignorance and darkened by 
superstition ; in no country on earth are there more 
generous hearts or warmer friends ; nowhere a fiercer 
spirit of revenge and more deadly enemies ; in devo- 
tion to its religion and in purity of morals, Ireland 
stands at the head of all lands, yet nowhere do the 
passions rage wilder and more uncontrolled. 

It is the same with the aspects of outward nature. 
The perennial verdancy and richness of her meadows 
and pasture lands have won for Ireland the title of 
"The Emerald Isle; " her crystal streams, her lovely 
vales, her lakes unequalled for their charms, attract 
admirers of the picturesque and beautiful from every 
land ; her soil in respect of natural fertility is not sur- 
passed anywhere, and offers to the industrious, skil- 
ful cultivator the richest reward for his toil ; yet 
nowhere will the traveller meet with more gloomy 
stretches of unreclaimed bogs and morasses, more uninviting expanses of 
unproductive stone-covered uplands; nowhere do the actual cultivators of the 
soil, as a class, live in such abject poverty and wretchedness ; from no country 
in Europe does so large a proportion of its children emigrate in search of a 

living. 

" ' O ! sad is my fate,' said the heart-broken stranger; 
' The wild deer and wolf to a covert can flee ! 
But I have no refuge from famine and danger; 
A home and a country remain not to me. 

"'O Erin, my country! though sad and forsaken, 
In dreams I revisit thy sea-beaten shore ; 
But, alas ! in a far, foreign land, I awaken 

And sitrh for the friends that can meet me no more.' " 




The reader naturally inquires the reason for such a seemingly paradoxical 

9 ' (129) 



130 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

condition of matters. We answer freely that it is due to seven centuries of 
unprecedented oppression and misrule. The Irish have been treated as having 
scarcely a right to live on their own soil, far less to exercise freedom of judg- 
ment or liberty of conscience. The keen sense of injustice operating on minds 
naturally sensitive has often turned the milder blood of humanity into gall; 
the peasant seeing himself despoiled of the fruit of his toil to enrich the alien 
land-owner, has no encouragement to attempt improvement, and has learned 
to content himself with a mode of living scarcely superior to that of the beasts 
around him. The one redeeming feature in the whole case is, that England now 
has begun to awaken to a consciousness of the tact that her treatment of 
Ireland has hitherto been scandalous and unprofitable to herself; and, whether 
from a sense of justice or of her own advantage (or both combined), is now 
disposed to act in a more generous spirit. 

The social and political differences distinguishing Ireland from Britain are 
to be referred largely to its position and ph\ sical structure. While it is sepa- 
rated from America by the whole width of the Atlantic ocean, it is cut off 
from Europe by the greater island to the east of it. This isolated position has 
till a recent period shut out Ireland from contact with the civilizing influences 
of Europe, and preserved the bulk of its inhabitants much in their primitive 
condition. The remarkable unity of its physical structure has had even greater 
social results, being reflected in the unvaried character of its industry. The 
centre of the island appears as a basin composed of flat or gently swelling 
land, broken only by lakes and traversed by one large river (the Shannon). 
Round this central plain runs a circle of hills and mountains forming a fringe 
round the island. The principal ranges are the Mourne mountains in Down, 
the Wicklow mountains, and Macgillicuddy Reeks in Kerry, of which the 
loftiest peak (Carran-Tual) rises to a height of 3,114 feet. Another leading 
feature of Ireland is its lakes or loughs. Lough Neagh, in Antrim, is the great- 
est lake in the British Isles, covering 150 square miles. Associated with this 
lough there is a legend we must not omit. Every one knows there are no 
snakes nor toads in Ireland, and that the country is indebted for this immunity 
to the blessed St. Patrick, who from the top of the Hill of Howth banished 
them from all the land. 

The " king of the serpents " alone, the oldest and wildest of his tribe, ob- 
jected to being thus disposed of and withdrew to the borders of Lough Neagh, 
where he took up his winter-quarters. The saint came on him one bitterly cold 
day. He let him sleep on till he had provided a strong box, comfortably lined 
with blankets, and furnished with the strongest lock and key Ireland could 
supply, and an awfully heavy lid. When all was ready, Patrick awoke the ser- 
pent and courteously invited him to enter the fine dwelling he had prepared 
for him. The royal reptile hesitated, till the saint urged him to lie down in it, 
just to see whether it would fit. To this the astute beast consented on con- 



IRELAND. 131 

dition that a bit of his tail was left out. The moment Patrick got him so far 
in, he slipt instantly round, and putting his shoulder under the lid raised it so 
that it came down with a crash. The serpent pulled in its tail just in time to 
save it. The saint at once locked the chest, and with the help of willing hands 
placed it in a boat, rowed it out to the deepest part of the lough and dropped 
it overboard. When the aged king found himself entrapped, his pleadings 
were piteous to hear. " When will you let me out ? " he asked. " To-morrow," 
replied the saint ; and to this day the lonely sailor on the lough can hear the 
deceived reptile wailingly inquire, "Is it to-morrow yet?" We know there 
are variations of the legend, but we tell the tale as it was told to us. 

Other expanses of fresh water are the lakes of the rivers Shannon and 
Erne, the lakes of Connemara, and the three exquisitely beautiful lakes of 
Killarney, lying at the base of the Macgillicuddy Reeks. A less attractive 
feature in the landscape are its bogs or morasses occupying about a seventh 
part of the island. Oi these the largest is the Bog of Allen, stretching in a 
broad plain across the centre of the island and occupying a large part of the 
coundes of Kildare, Carlow, and King's County. These bogs in some meas- 
ure compensate Ireland for its comparative want of coal, supplying it with fuel 
in the shape of turf or peat. 

The river system of Ireland is peculiar, all its streams, save the Shannon, 
rising in the heights that fringe the coast and after a short course falling into 
the sea on the same side of the island on which they rise. The Shannon, on 
the other hand, rises in the north, and after passing through the central plain 
in a series of lakes, along which lies the most fertile soil of the country, falls 
into the Atlantic by a magnificent estuary, after a course of 224 miles. It is 
the largest stream in the British Isles and the only really navigable river in 
Ireland. The rivers on the north and east of Ireland are unimportant, only 
the Liffey commanding our nodce, because at its mouth stands Dublin, the 
capital of the country. In the south we note the Slaney and Barrow, forming 
Wexford and Waterford harbors ; the Blackwater, forming at its mouth 
Youghal harbor; the Lee, consdtuting the magnificentport of Cork; and the 
Brandon, Kinsale harbor. Several canals intersect the island and render one 
or two of the rivers navigable to inland towns. 

The moisture of Ireland resulting from its situation in the Atlantic produces 
a constant rainfall that makes pasturage more profitable than tillage, which, 
except in Ulster, is generally in a very backward state. The vast central plain, 
excepting the portions covered by bogs, is clothed with almost continual verd- 
ure and constitutes one of the finest tracts of grazing-land to be found any- 
where in the world. Of the vast herds of cattle fed on it a large proportion 
eoes to England for beef, and the same market takes the bulk of its mutton, 
pork, dairy produce, etc. The potato is the staple agricultural crop and main 
article of diet, especially on the small farms in Connaught and Munster ; but 



13-2 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



on the larger and better cultivated farms wheat is also largely raised and 
yields good returns, a large portion of the crop being exported to England. 

The comparative absence of coal and the poverty of its rocks in metals 
operate to check the development of manufacturing industry, and to restrict 
the people to agriculture. Linen is the staple textile product, Belfast and the 
surrounding districts of Ulster being the chief seats. About 300,000 persons, 
chiefly females, are engaged in this industry. Poplin is also manufactured to 
a considerable extent in Dublin. Whiskey is largely produced, especially in 
Leinster and Munster. In its fisheries Ireland might possess an almost ex- 
haustless source of wealth, but unfortunately these are by no means adequately 
developed. Its mercantile marine is inconsiderable, being mainly engaged in 
carrying produce and cattle to England. 

By far the greatest number of American travellers who visit .Ireland ap- 
proach it by way of Oueenstown and Cork. Cork harbor is one of the most 
beautiful and spacious in the kingdom, being a basin of ten square miles shut 
in by finely wooded hills, while several islands give variety and luxuriance to 
the scene. Oueenstown, where passengers from America land, is finely 
situated on Great Island, fourteen miles east of Cork, with which it is joined 
by a railway. But by far the finest approach to Cork is by steam-boat up the 
river Lee, the short sail being one of the richest treats the island can supply. 

The hills fringfinof the rivers 
are clad from summit to base 
with every variety of foliage; 
graceful villas and ornamental 
cottages are scattered in pro- 
fusion over the heights, while 
every here and there some 
ancient ruin recalls some tra- 
dition of the past. 

Unhappily, the first pecu- 
liarity to strike the stranger 
on landing is the multiplicity 
of beggars. Their wit and 
humor are as proverbial as their rags and wretchedness. " You've lost all 
your teeth," said a tourist to a female beggar. "Time for me to lose them 

— ," was 




THE JAUNTING CAR. 



when I had nothing to eat," was the ready rejoinder. " Go to — 
the coarse repulse received by a persevering woman from an irate traveller: 
"Ah, thin, it's a long journey yer honor's sending us on ; maybe yer honor'll 
give us something to fill our mouths on the way." 

The characteristic vehicle of Ireland is the jaunting car. The peculiarity 
of this car is that the occupants sit with their sides to the horses, overlooking 
the wheels. When there are more passengers than one, they sit back to back, 







(133) 



134 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

with a "well" for the luggage between them. The drivers are no less per- 
tinacious and no whit less comical than the beggars, and the play of wit 
between the numerous competitors who shout and struggle to secure your 
patronage is annoying or amusing, according to the humor of the stranger. 
So soon as you have made your selection, or had it made for you by some 
carman securing your baggage and depositing it in his "well," you scarcely 
ever fail to find that you have got an admirable guide, good-humored, obliging, 
and intelligent as regards the objects worthy of notice. Cork used to be the 
second city of Ireland, but is now surpassed in population by Belfast, and still 
more in manufactures and commerce. It is pleasant by reason of the antique 
picturesqueness of its streets, its situation on the Lee, and the fine overhang- 
ing heights. As in most Irish towns, there are many mean streets, inhabited 
by the poorer classes. It was here that Father Matthew, a Catholic priest, 
opened his temperance campaign in 183S, which conferred such blessings on 
Ireland, the fruits of which are still visible. The objects that meet the eye in 
every direction around Cork go to justify its appellation of "the beautiful city." 
Undoubtedly the most famous of these are 

" The groves of Blarney that are so charming," 

with the still more renowned stone. The " Blarney Stone " is one of the stones 
of the ruined Castle of Blarney, which stands embosomed amid the "charminof 
groves," some four miles north-west from Cork. He who kisses this stone is 
ever after master of a mellifluous and persuasive tongue, although not neces- 
sarily a sincere one. Especially is he endued with the faculty of putting the 
"Cornhidher" upon the girls, or the gift of " soft sawder." The true stone 
can only be reached by the visitor by being let down some twenty feet from 
the northern angle of the lofty castle. It bears an inscription; 

" Cormac McCarthy, fortis, me fieri fecit, A. d. 1446 ; " 

that is, " Cormack McCarthy, the strong, caused me (the casde) to be erected, 
1446." A touching story is told in connection with the castle. The descend- 
ants of the McCarthys, like those of nearly all the ancient families of Ireland, 
are now among the poorest of the poor, often working as day-laborers around 
the castles their forefathers erected. The proprietor of a portion of the 
great McCarthy estates observed one evening an aged man stretched at the 
foot of an old tree, " sobbing as though his heart would break." On express- 
ing sympathy with him, the old man exclaimed : " I am a McCarthy, once 
the possessor of this castle and these broad lands ; this tree I planted, and 
have returned to water it witli my tears. To morrow I sail for Spain, where 
I have been an exile since the revolution. To-night I bid a last farewell to 
the place of my birth and the home of my ancestors." The village of Blarney 
was once clean, neat and thriving, with linen and cotton factories. These 



IRELAND. 



135 



works have been swept away, and the hamlet, like the castle, is now a collec- 
tion of ruins. We note this as a specimen of the case of many an Irish 
villacre. 

The lakes of Killarney, lying at the base of the gigantic Macgillicuddy 
Reeks, are world-famed for their loveliness. They are three in number, and the 




FATHER MATTHEW. 



beauty of the scenery consists in the gracefulness of the mountain oudines, 
the rich and varied coloring of the wooded shores, deepening through gray 
rock and light green arbutus to brown mountain heath and dark firs. The 
largest is the Lower Lake, about five miles long by three broad, and studded by 
no less than thirty luxuriant islets. The legend which accounts for the exist- 



136 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



ence of the lakes narrates how a fair young peasant girl was wont to meet 
her lover every night by the side of an enchanted fountain, whose waters 
could be kept in check only by the pronunciation of a magic spell. The lovers, 
forgetful of all else save the spell that love cast over them, were lulled to sleep 
in each other's arms by the side of the fountain without pronouncing the 
restraining words. At daybreak the girl awoke, screaming : " The well ! the 
well!" Too late ! the waters rushed forth and overtook them as they ran. 
They were drowned, along with the inhabitants of the district, for in a single 




ROSS CASTLE, KILLARNEY. 



night fair and fertile fields, houses, castles and palaces were covered with 
water, which lies there yet to testify to the truth of the legend. Several other 
Irish lakes, notably Lough Neagh, originated in a similar way. In ancient 
times O'Donoghue of Ross was lord of the great lake and its islands. He 
was brave and generous, and the defender of the oppressed. Annually he 
revisits the pleasant places amid which he lived. 

" So sweet is still the breath 
Of the fields and the flowers in our youth we wandered o'er." 



IRELAND. 



137 



Every May morning he may be seen mounted on a white horse, richly 
caparisoned, while youths and maidens strew Bowers in his way. 

" When last April's sun grows dim, 
The Naiads prepare his steed for him, 
Who dwells, bright lake, in thee." 

Many another fair and romantic scene, many a legend-haunted ruin of 
castle, monastery and abbey, dots the County Kerry, but we must pass them 
over. 

The most noted of Kerry's sons was Daniel O'Connell, liberator of Ireland, 
born in 1775 at Darrynane Abbey, of which, witii a moderate estate, he 
was proprietor. He studied at St. Omer, 
France, and afterwards was a law-student 
at Lincoln's Inn. He rose to be the first 
barrister in Ireland, but it was as leader of the 
party who demanded equal rights for the 
Catholics that O'Connell won his fame. Not- 
withstanding that Catholics were legally ex- 
cluded from the British Parliament, O'Connell 
procured himself to be elected member for 
Clare in 1828, and although he failed to ob- 
tain admission at first, this decisive step led 
to the passage of the Catholic Emancipation 
Act in 1829. He shortly thereafter began to 
agitate for Repeal of the Union, and although 
he did not live to see his dreams of Irish leg- 
islative independence realized, yet he be- 
queathed, the question and the struggle to 
his countrymen, and now it is only a question 
of time when Ireland shall have her claim 
conceded. 

" Freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed by bleeding sjre to son. 
Though baffled oft, is ever won." 

O'Connell died at Rome in 1847, honored by all. He was a man of tran- 
scendent ability, and especially a man of peace. 

The mention of O'Connell's name naturally suggests that of Parnell, his 
successor in maintaining the cause of Ireland. Charles Stewart Parnell was 
born in 1846, at Avondale, County Wicklow, Ireland, of which property he is 
owner. His mother is daughter of Admiral Stewart of the United States 
navy. His paternal grandfather was the last chancellor of the exchequer in 
the Irish Parliament. Educated at Cambridge College, England, Mr. Parnell 



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MONUMENT TO DANIEL 
O'CONNELL. 



138 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



was in 1875 elected member of Parliament for Meath, and sat for that county 
till 1880, when he was chosen by three constituencies, including the city of 
Cork, for which he decided to sit. He is, although a Protestant, head of the 
Irish Home Rule party ; and it is worthy of note that several Irish popular 
leaders, as Smith O'Brien, John Mitchell, etc., have belonged to this faith. In 
1 88 1 Mr. Parnell, although a land-owner, was made first president of the Land 

League, the objects of which are. 



first, a reduction of rents, and, 
next, the substitution of peasant 
proprietors for landlords. In 
1 88 1 Mr. Parnell was impris- 
oned as a suspect, but speedily 
released. His able conduct of 
the Irish cause seems to promise 
it early success. " There are," 
says an able writer, "three hun- 
dred years of irrefutable argu- 
ments that the English cannot 

o 

govern Ireland by any modes 
hitherto resorted to." During 
the last few years, since Mr. Par- 
nell has taken the lead, the Irish 
party have shown an insight, a 
patience and ability quite equal 
to any section of British admin- 
istration. 

It would be easy to extend 
the bead-roll of Irish patriots 
almost indefinitely. The names of Grattan, Curran, Shiel, Smith O'Brien, 
Mitchell, Butt, etc., etc., rise uncalled for to the memory. We satisfy our- 
selves, however, with speaking in briefest detail, of only two other great Irish- 
men, both distinguished ornaments of literature as well as patriots, namely, 
Edmund Burke and Thomas Moore. Edmund Burke, distinguished above all 
men of his times for eloquence and political foresight, was born in i 730, in 
Dublin, where his father was an attorney. Educated at Dublin University, he 
early gained fame as a writer, his most renowned work being his Essay oti the 
Sublune and Beautiful. He became member of successive Parliaments, a 
member of the Privy Council, and held high office under several governments. 
He was an able advocate of the claims of the Roman Catholics, while towards 
America he always advocated a policy of conciliation and justice. Few men 
have received higher panegyrics than Burke, and few so well deserved them. 
He was noble-minded, pure in morals, and richly endowed intellectually. He 




CHARLES STEWART PARNELL 



IRELAND. 



139 



died in 1798, in his sixty-eighth year. Thomas Moore, one of the finest lyri- 
cal poets the world has seen, was also born in Dublin, in 1779, his father being 
a small tradesman. He studied at Dublin University, where he translated the 
" Odes of Anacreon." Other well-known poetical works are : " Irish Melodies," 
" Lalla Rookh," " Loves of the Angels," " Two-penny Post-bag." He published 
also an excellent life of his friend Byron. He died in 1852. He was a lover of 
his country, but too much of a courtier to advocate its claims effectively. 

The chief part of the County of Limerick consists of a broad plain, bordering 
the Shannon, called from its fertility the Golden Vale. This, with the plains 
of Boyle, in Roscommon, is the richest land in 
Britain. Limerick is an ancient city, on both 
sides of the .Shannon, of 40,000 inhabitants. 
Before its walls were defeated, first the Anglo- 
Norman chivalry, then the Ironsides of Crom- 
well, and last, the victorious army of William 
III. The treaty made after this victory was 
broken by William ; hence Limerick is known 
as the " city of the violated treaty." The 
"treaty stone" still marks the spot where the 
document was signed. Galway is the largest 
city in Connaught, having a population ol 
about fifteen thousand. Some of the older 
houses have a Spanish appearance, from the 
close connection between Galway and Spain 
in bygone times. To one house an interest- 
ing legend appertains. The mayor, James birthplace of tom moore. 
Lynch, in 1493, condemned his own son to death for murder. The lad was a 
favorite with the people, and to prevent him from being rescued, his father caused 
him to be hanged from his own window; some say he hanged him with his own 
hand, and never after was seen to smile or even look up. In this we probably 
see the origin of the term " Lynch Law." One suburb of Galway is the Clad- 
dagh, inhabited by fishermen, who exclude all strangers from their society, 
and marry only among themselves. These fishermen still speak the Irish 
language, and the women wear the Irish costume. Sailing north-east from 
Derry we come to the Giant's Causeway, one of the most remarkable natural 
objects anywhere to be seen. It is impossible, indeed, for painter to portray or 
the imagination to conceive a scene more wonderful than this, consisting of 
innumerable octagonal pillars of basalt, towering to the height of several hun- 
dred feet along the sea margin; with many groined caves, natural bridges, 
chasms, etc., interspersed. The shore between the base of the pillared cliffs 
and the water is paved, as it were, by the bases of multitudinous other pillars, 
dipping gradually to the sea, and giving the impression of a regular causeway 




140 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



formed by giants. Legendary tradition tells us that the causeway was con- 
structed by the Irish giant, Finn McCoul, to enable the Scottish giant Banandon- 
ner to come over and receive the benefit of a beating without wetting his feet. 
Turning southward, a visit to the thriving manufacturing and commercial 
town of Belfast will well repay the traveller, and still farther south he finds 
Dublin, the capital of Ireland, on a bay beautiful as that of Naples, at the mouth 
of the Liffey. The leading features of Dublin are its castle, its university, its 
four courts, its custom-house, its ancient Parliament-house in Stephen's Green, 
shortly to be reoccupied, its noble Phcenix Park, and the Lord-Lieutenant's 
Lodge. Some of its streets, as Sackville street, Westmoreland street, etc., are 




THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY. 



very fine, and it possesses several excellent statues and monuments, notably 
that to the hero Nelson. The population is about 300,000. 

No traveller can leave Ireland without seeing the Vale of Avoca in the 
County Wicklow, celebrated by the poet Moore. It is formed by the junction 
ot two streams, Avon and Avoca, which uniting here into one, run for nine 
miles through an exquisitely picturesque vale only a quarter of a mile wide, 
with wooded banks 300 to 500 feet high. 

"There's not in the wide world a valley so sweet 
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet ; 
Oh ! the last raj' of feeling and life must depart, 
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart. 



IRELAND. 141 

" Sweet vale of Avoca ! how calm could I rest 
In thy bosom of shade with the friends I love best, 
Where the storms that we feel in the cold world should cease, 
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace." 

The primitive inhabitants of Ireland were Kelts, akin to the Kells of Brit- 
ain. Little is known of the island till the time of Laegaire McNeill, chief mon- 
arch of Ireland (436), when St. Patrick converted the natives to Christianity. 
In early times there were five provinces in Ireland — Ulster, Leinster, Meath, 
Connaught, Munster — and the head monarch or ardrigh ruled over the cen- 
tral district of Meath, residing at Tara. By the sixth century extensive mon- 
asteries had been founded, from which rayed forth culture to the surround- 
ino- countries, and missionaries issued to carry Christianity to pagan nations. 
Amono-the most celebrated of these missionaries was Columba, who converted 
Scotland. The progress of Irish civilization was checked by the incursions of 
the Danes towards the close of the eighth century,- who harrassed the land for 
300 years, till overthrown by Brian Boru, monarch of Ireland, at Clontarf, near 
Dublin, in 1014. From the eighth to the twelfth century Ireland produced 
many scholars of eminence, and several books, as the " Book of Kells," survive 
to prove their acquirements. Under the history of England we have told how 
Ireland fell under English rule. Gradually the old chiefs were expelled, and 
their estates confiscated on the charge of treason or rebellion and given to 
Englishmen. Many times did the Irish revolt and attempt to expel their Eng- 
lish rulers. After the suppression of an insurrection under Fitzgerald, son of 
the viceroy of Henry VIII., in 1534, some of the native princes were induced 
to acknowledge Henry, and accept peerages. The attempts of the English 
government to introduce the Reformed faith stirred up the revolt of the Earl 
of Desmond, whose vast estates in Munster were, after his death in 1583, 
parcelled out to English setders. 

In the beginning of the seventeenth century the great Ulster chiefs, O'Neill 
and O'Donnell, made a successful stand till they were recognized as the 
earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell. Fearing danger, these nobles in 1608 re- 
tired to the Continent, and James I. carried out a project of parcelling out the 
north of Ireland to Scotch and English setders. This was the famous " Plan- 
tation of Ulster." In 1641 the Irish rose and massacred some 40,000 Protest- 
ants. The country continued troubled till 1649, when Cromwell overran it. 
At the revolution the Irish Catholics took the part of James II., while the Scotch 
and English colonists stood for William and Mary. The war raged for four 
years (i 688-1 692) the most memorable battle being that on the banks of the 
Boyne (July 12th, 1690,) in which William completely defeated James. The 
supporters of William are represented by the Orangemen, so called because 
he was Prince of Orange. From this time for nearly a century history records 
little but the passing of penal statutes against Catholics, and the disaffection 



142 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



caused by these gave birth to the rebelHon of 1 798. On the suppression of 
this in 1800, the legislative union of Ireland and England was consummated, 
and since then the history of the two countries has been the same. 

Ireland has contributed nobly to English literature, witness the names of 
Oliver Goldsmith, Laurence Sterne, Miss Edgeworth, Sheridan Knowles, 




Carleton, Lover, Lever, Maginn, etc. Burke and Moore have been previously 
mentioned. The country cannot be said to have a distinct school of art, but 
it has given to the British school Sir Martin Shea, president of the Royal Aca- 
demy ; Maclise, one of the greatest British masters of the human figure ; 
Barry, architect of the British Parliament-house ; Hogan, the sculptor, and 



IRELAND. 



143 



Balfe, the composer. In science, she boasts the names of the Earl of Rosse, 
the astronomer ; Kane, the chemist ; Hull, the geologist, and many others. 

Moore, the great Irish national poet, whilst meditating upon the wrongs 
and sufferings of his native land, compared it to Sion, in that it too had been 




CUSTOM HOUSE, DUBLIN. 

compelled to drink of "the cup of trembling." Nevertheless the impression 
was strong in his mind that there was a bright future before it. And under 
the influence of this conviction he sang : 

" The nations have fallen, and thou still art young, 

Thy sun is but rising, when others are set, 
And though slavery's cloud o'er thy morning hath hung, 

The full moon of freedom shall beam round thee yet. 
Erin, oh Erin, though long in the shade. 
Thy star will shine out when the proudest shall fade." 




EDINBURGH. 



SCOTLAND. 



" O Caledonia ! Stern and wild ! 
Meet nurse for a poetic child ! 
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood; 
Land of the mountain and the flood." 

)UCH are the enthusiastically patriotic lines with which Sir Walter 
Scott salutes " his own, his native land," and surely, if ever any 
land merited the love and devotion of its children, it is this little 
rugged land of Scotland. Separated from its powerful neighbor, 
England, by only an imaginary line, with not one-tenth part of its 
population, and not one-twentieth of its resources and wealth, it 
yet maintained its independence through centuries of arduous 
struggle ; and, though devastated and impoverished, preferred 
freedom with penury to submission and humiliation with ease and 
Well has her earliest real poet, Barbor, the contemporary of 
Chaucer, who so nobly sung "The Bruce," voiced the national sentiment: 
(144) 




abundance. 



SCOTLAND. 145 

" Ah ! freedom is a noble thing ! 
Freedom makes man to have liking : 
Freedom all solace to man gives ; 
He lives at peace that freely lives." 

"The fundamental difference " said Gladstone, in his speech on Home Rule 
for Ireland, delivered at Glasgow, June 21st, 1886, "between the union of 
England and Scodand, and England and Ireland, was, that Scodand was al- 
ways able to hold her own with England. Scodand met England on a footing 
of equality ; while the case was altogether different with unfortunate Ireland." 

No country in Europe has made such advances in material prosperity, 
during the last century, as Scodand, and few have kept pace with her in 
literary advancement. In i 780 Scotland was one of the poorest and least 
known of nations; in 1887 it is scarcely surpassed by any in wealth and 
industrial activity, or in material, intellectual and moral civilization. This re- 




HOME OF ROBERT BURNS. 



markable progress is to be traced to various causes. Undoubtedly, at the 
basis lies the character of its people, who for energy, intelligence, foresight, 
perseverance and thrift are famed the world over. Not less clearly the admir- 
able system of religious and educational training instituted at the Reformation 
by John Knox, her " Great Reformer" (which provided that there should be a 
church and school for every thousand people), had much to do in laying the 
foundation, and developing many of the best traits of this national character. 
Over and above these, Scotland possesses in abundance those treasures of 
mineral wealth (especially of coal and iron) in which Ireland is so deficient ; 
while her peculiar topographical conformation affords to her inland districts 
facilities for water communication quite unequalled. 

It is worth our while, therefore, to survey, for a brief space, the salient 
10 



146 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

features of this rugged little land, than which none more picturesque is any- 
where to be found, as well as a few of the leading events in its history. The 
mainland of Scotland is the northern and smaller division of the island of Great 
Britain, lying between 54° 38' and 58° 40' 30" N. The longest line that can 
be drawn on it is between its most soutiierly point (the Mull of Galloway) and 
its most northerly (Dunnet Head), 2S7 miles. Its breadth is extremely 
irregular, varying from 182 miles at its broadest part, to 24 at the narrowest; 
but the whole coast is so interpenetrated by arms of the sea, in the forms of 
firths or estuaries, and lochs, that there is but one spot on the mainland more 
than 40 miles from the shore. No country has so many islands lying off its 
coasts. These islands may be classed into three groups, viz. : the Hebrides 
or Western Isles, dotting all the western coast, and the Orkney and Shedand 
groups, stretching northward to latitude 60° 50'. The entire area of the 
country is 31,300 square miles, of which 26,000 are in the mainland, and the 
balance in the islands. The populadon is over 4,000,000, of which 333,000 are 
Highlanders, the remaining 3,750,000 being Lowlanders. One-third of the 
population lies within a radius of 20 miles round Glasgow. 

As compared with England, the general aspect of Scodand is rough and 
mountainous, a very small proportion of the country spreading out into level 
plains. Assuming its whole acreage (exclusive of the lakes) to be 19,000,000, 
it is estimated that not more than 6,000,000 are arable; but it may be safely 
said that from no other six millions of acres in the world of only equal fertility 
is so much produce taken for human consumption. Although there are no 
great plains, there are numerous valleys and tracts of comparatively level land, 
known as "dales" or "straths," lying between the mountain ranges, and 
many stretches of rich alluvial land, known as " carses," " haughs " and 
" holms," lying along its coasts or on the margins of its estuaries and streams. 

Scotland consists of two great divisions inhabited by two distinct races of 
people, differing from each other in origin, customs, speech and dress. If the 
reader will look at a map of Scotland, he will observe a range of mountains, 
with numerous spurs and outliers, bearing the general name of Grampians, 
starting from Dumbarton, on the Clyde, and running in a north-easterly direc- 
tion towards Aberdeen. All west of this line is known as Highlands ; all east 
and south as Lowlands. The range dies away before reaching the Murray 
Firth, so that, in reality, all the east-coast country up to the extreme north 
may, with certain excepdons, be properly regarded as Lowland. The High- 
land district is generally characterized by romantic scenery, wild, precipitous 
mountains, dreary moorlands, lochs or lakes, and rushing streams, deep glens 
and wild, hanging woods ; the Lowlands, though presenting several consider- 
able mountain ranges, is much less rugged in its general character. The 
Highlands are inhabited by a Keltic race akin to the native Irish, and speaking 
a dialect of Irish known as Gaelic, and having for their national garb the tartan 



SCOTLAND. 147 



11 L'' 



kilt or philabeg, plaid, etc. The Lowlanders are a Teutonic race speakii 
pure form of early English, and wearing practically the same dress with the 
people of England. In the extreme north is the county of Caithness, a level 
district inhabited by a Norse population of the same race with the natives of 
the Orkney and Shetland islands, in some of the most northerly of which the 
Norwegian language continued to be spoken down to near the commence- 
ment of the present century. 

If the reader would learn the condition of the Highlanders down to the end 
of the last century, we must refer him to the pages of Sir Walter Scott, who 
may be said to have discovered this region to the civilized world. Each sepa- 
rate o-len was inhabited by its own clan, all bearing the name of their chieftain 
— Cameron, Macdonald, Macleod, Campbell, Grant, etc. — to whom they were 
bound by real or supposed ties of family relationship, and for whom they 
fought and died without question ; devotion to their chief being almost their 
sole idea of religion. War may be said to have been almost their normal 
condition, feuds between clans being incessant and handed down from father 
to son for generations. Their more peculiar weapons were the claymore or 
broadsword, dirk and targe. Says Scott: 

"111 fared it then witli Roderick Dhu, 
That on the ground his targe he threw, 
Whose brazen studs and tough bull-hide 
Had death so often dashed aside." 

The bag-pipe was, and is, their national instrument of music, and to its 
martial strains the Highland regiments still march to " death or glory." 

"And wild and high the ' Cameron's gathering' rose, 

The war-note of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills 
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes : 

How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills 

Savage and shrill ! but with the breath which fills 
Their mountain pipe, so fill the mountaineers 

With the fierce native daring which instils 
The stirring memory of a thousand years, 
And Evan's, Donald's fame, rings in each clansman's ears ! " 

The people lived largely on the produce of the chase and fishing. Settled 
industry they despised as unmanly, the women doing all the drudgery, even 
on their miserable patches of cultivation. Their grand resources were 
"forays" into the Lowlands, whence they were wont to return with whole 
herds of " lifted " cattle. These systematic raids gave rise to the practice of 
blackmailing, it being the custom of the rich Lowland proprietors living near 
the Highland line to pay some powerful chief a percentage on the value of his 
stock, to insure it against being stolen, or if stolen by others, followed by his 



148 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

clan and returned. Robert McGregor — better known as Rob Roy — chieftain 
of the outlawed clan McGregor, is the type of the Highland robber-chief and 
blackmailer. No name is more popular in the Highlands. 

Roads there were none, nor wheeled carriages. After the rebellion of 
I 715 General Wade constructed excellent roads in all directions for military 
purposes. This was the beginning of civilization. The gratitude of the poor 
people for the unmeant blessing is tersely expressed in the distich: 

" Had you seen these roads, before they ivcre made. 
You would hold up your hands and bless General Wade." 

In 1746 the chiefs were deprived of the power of life and death over their 
vassals. Then schools and churches began to be planted, and in 1784 the 
Highland Agricultural Society was established, with the greatest benefit to the 
district. Since then progress has been rapid. Much money has been brought 
into the Highlands by sheep-farming and the letting of deer forests (in which, 
by the way, there is seldom a tree) to southern noblemen and gentlemen, and now 
this region promises shordy to be as flourishing as the Lowlands or England. 

Space will not permit us to difate on the former state of the Lowlands. 
Gibson, describing Glasgow (now the second city in the empire) in 1707, says: 
" The number of people did not exceed 14,000, and they were in general poor ; 
manufactures were almost unknown, and commerce was carried on to a very 
trifling extent." Now a greater number of the largest and finest class of 
steam-ships are built on the Clyde, at and below Glasgow, than on any other 
river in the world. It is there that nearly all " the greyhounds of the ocean " 
are designed, fabricated and engined. Agriculture was equally backward. 
There were no inclosures, no green crops, no clover, potatoes or turnips. 
The land was cultivated " runrig," that is, ridge and ridge about by neighbors 
in common. The farmers dwelt in houses litde better than hovels. Now, 
Scotland stands at the head of the agricultural world. The larger tenant 
farmers, especially in the richer districts, as East and Midlothian, Berwickshire, 
Easter Ross, Aberdeen, etc., live in a state of comfort and even dignity that 
must be seen to be realized. Many of them pay annual rents of /i.ooo, and 
some far more, and their solid, stone-built mansions are an ornament to the 
country. The average rental of the available land is from ^i to ^5 per acre 
a year. Even more carefully and more scientifically than in England, every 
rood is cleared, and made to yield its utmost. It is held that a farmer ought 
to have a capital of ^10 for every acre of his farm. In the more improved 
districts this is deemed insufficient. The crops raised are oats, wheat (in the 
more kindly districts), barley, potatoes, beans, etc. In no country are turnips 
cultivated with such success. Oats yield from fifty to seventy bushels an 
acre, the standard weight of the bushel being forty-two pounds, but this is 
o-enerally exceeded. Barley is largely grown to be distilled into whiskey, 



SCOTLAND. 149 

which manufacture is more extensively pursued here than elsewhere. The 
principal seats of this industry are the Isle of Islay and Campbelltown in 
Argyleshire, and Glenlivet in Banff. The finest cattle that reach the London 
market are the "prime Scots" from Aberdeenshire and Banffshire, bringing 
when two and a half years old from ^150 to ^i 80 a head. Ten years ago prices 
were even hieher, and the feeders were amongr the wealthiest farmers in the 
world, but the introduction of American beef has reduced prices, and corre- 
spondingly diminished or abolished the farmers' profits. Agricultural servants 
are generally hired by the half-year, the men receiving at the rate of from ^, lo 
to ^15 for six months, with board. Laborers are commonly housed in well-built 
stone houses. They earn Irom $3.50 to $4.50 a week. The land oi Scotland 
is in fewer hands than that ot any other country, several ol its nobles, as the 
Dukes of Buccleuch, Sutherland, Richmond, Hamilton, Argyle, Athole, the 
Earls of Breadalbane, Fife, Seafield, etc., owning estates each covering hun- 
dreds of thousands of acres. As an offset their tenants are much better off 
than those of the smaller proprietors and lairds. The princely castles of these 
and other peers, and the stately mansions of hundreds of other great proprie- 
tors, with their beautiful gardens and surroundings, confer grace and dignity 
on the landscape. 

The fisheries of Scotland are of high importance and pursued with skill and 
enterprise. The herring and salmon fisheries, in particular, are the most im- 
portant of their kind in the world. From one river, the Spey, the Duke of 
Richmond, the chief proprietor of the salmon fishing, is said to derive an 
income of ^12,000 a year. Nothing connected with the Scottish fisheries so 
greatly arrests the attention of spectators as the " Newhaven Fishwives." 
Large brawny women, clean and tidy, clad in a picturesque costume, which is 
not to be found, in all points, worn by any other class of women in any country, 
walk, three or four times a week, early in the morning, to Edinburgh from 
Newhaven — a distance of three miles — carrying large baskets of fish, which 
have been freshly caught by their husbands. Their singular cry of " caller 
herrin" (fresh herring), mingling with the sound of church bells on a week- 
day, suggested to the Scottish violinist, Neil Gow, a song of that name. 

The national religion of Scotland is Presbyterianism, about four-fifths of 
the people adhering to this form. But the original Presbyterian Church has 
now been split into four branches, viz. : the Established, the Free, the United, 
and the Reformed. In the thirty-three counties of Scotland there are about 
1,300 parishes, and in each of these there is an established church. The aver- 
age income of the parish minister is ^300 a year, with a manse and glebe. 
But now not more than half of the Presbyterian people are found in the state 
church. The Free Church has nearly 1,000 churches ; the United Presby- 
terian, 620 ; the Reformed, 44. The aristocracy largely profess Episcopacy, 
which has 180 churches. In a few districts there are found native Catholics, 



150 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



but the Catholic Church is mainly attended by immigrant Irish. There are be- 
sides, especially in the towns, congregations of Methodists, Congregationalists, 
Baptists, etc. 

Scodand has four universities — Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, St. An- 
drews — with an average attendance of over 5,000 students. Its common- 
school system is among the most perfect in the world, attendance being com- 
pulsory and rigidly enforced. The teachers' incomes range from ^140 to 
^250 a year in country districts, with dwelling-house and garden. 

No country of equal size has furnished a greater number of illustrious 
names to literature, science and art, than Scotland. Her misfortune is that 
her most eminent sons are apt to emigrate to England and to become recog- 
nized as Englishmen. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries William 
Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, Sir David Lindsay and Drummond, of Hawthornden, 
were distinguished poets; and Bishop Burnet a historian of high repute. In 
the eighteenth she produced the sweet song-writers, Miss Elliott, Mrs. Cock- 
burn and Baroness Nairn, whose fine songs, "The Flowers of the Forest," 
" Land o' the Leal " and " Laird o' Cockpen," are known to all ; as well as 
Thomson, bard of the seasons ; Reid and Dugald Stewart, philosophers ; 
Adam Smith, political economist ; Robertson, historian, and David Hume, 
Britain's best metaphysician and historian. High over all these towers her 
national bard, Robert Burns. In the present century space permits us to name 

only Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, a true 
peasant son of genius ; Allan Cunningham ; 
William Black and George Macdonald, 
novelists ; and, again surpassing all their 
coevals. Sir Walter Scott and Thomas 
Carlyle. Macaulay and Gladstone, though 
Scotch by blood, were born and trained in 
England. Byron and Brougham were half 
Scotch and partly reared in Scotland. In 
science, Scotland has the names of Napier, 
inventor of logarithms ; James Watt, dis- 
coverer of the power of steam ; the Hun- 
ters (William and John), comparative anat- 
omists ; Sir James Simpson (anaesdietics) ; 
Murchison, Lyell, Hugh Miller, Ramsay, 
Geikie, greatest of geologists ; and Sir Wil- 
liam Thomson, probably the foremost of 
living men in several departments of natural 
science. In art, the annual exhibitions in Edinburgh testify to her high place. 
We name only Sir David Wilkie, Raeburn, Thorburn (miniaturist, etc.), the 
Faeds, Nicol, Sir Noel Baton. 




ROBERT BURNS. 




(151) 



152 



THE GOI-DEN TREASURY. 



We have distinguished three names as illustrious in literature above others, 
Burns, Scott, Carlyle. We devote a few special words to each. 

Robert Burns, bard of Scotland, was born in a poor "clay-biggin" by the 
banks of Doon, Ayrshire, January 25th, 1759. His father was a poor working 
gardener, and afterwards became a yet poorer man as a farmer. Burns, like 
all Scotch children, received such a common-school education, that he tells us 
that at the aee of ten or eleven he was " a critic in substantives, vtrbs, and 
particles." He soon became a critic in a more dangerous lore, and love for 
his youthful companion in the harvest-field inspired his first song, written in 
his sixteenth year. In 1781 he entered, with his brother Gilbert, on the farm 
of Mossgiel, where he continued the struggle with poverty and misfortune that 
accompanied him all his too short life. In 1 7S6 his first volume oi poetry was 




TWA BRIGS O' AYR. 

published at Kilmarnork : subsequent editions were published in Edinburgh. 
Among his pieces, marked by wondrous graphic power, dramatic spirit 
and humor, we may instance his "Tarn O'Shanter," " Joll)- Beggars," " Twa 
Dogs," " Death and Dr. Hornbook," "Twa Brigs o' Ayr." Tenderness, truth 
and sensibility characterize his " Cotter's Saturday Night," and his addresses 
to the " Mountain Daisy " and the " Mouse." His love songs are instinct with 
passion and exquisite in their beauty, while no such patriotic lyric as " Bruce's 
Address " was ever penned. Burns, after failing as a farmer, became an excise- 
officer, residing in Dumfries, where he fell into somewhat dissipated habits and 
died, at the early age of thirty-six, July 21st, 1796. 

Sir Walter Scott, the " Ariosto of the North," was born at Edinburgh, 
August 15th, I 771, his father being a lawyer of good standing, allied to the 
good old border family of Scott, of Harden. He was educated at Edinburgh 



SCOTLAND. 



153 



University, and, on leaving college, was called to the bar. Subsequently he 
was appointed sheriff of Selkirkshire, with a salary of /i^300 a year, and, at a 
later period, clerk of the Court of Session, with ^1,300 a year. Ballad min- 
strelsy had great charms for him, and he used to hunt up old ballads in Liddes- 
daleand the borders generally, which he afterwards published. His first orig- 




inal work was a translation of Burner's " Lenore," and "The Wild Hunts- 
man ; " but he was comparatively unknown till, in 1805, appeared his " Lay of 
the Last Minstrel," which instandy stamped him as one of the greatest of liv- 
ing poets. This was followed by " The Lady of the Lake," " Marmion," " Lord 
of the Isles," etc. But it was when his first novel, " Waverly " appeared in 
1814, that he was recognized as the true "Wizard of the North." This was 



154 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



followed by a long and ma<,'nificent series of prose fictions, comprising " Guy 
Mannerino," "Antiquary," " Old Mortality," "Rob Roy," " Ivanhoe," etc. It 
was Scott's ambition to found a family seat, and with this view, he made many 
purchases of land on the banks of, his favorite Tweed, where he erected his 
mao-nificent mansion or casde of Abbotsford. To crown his honors a baronetcy 
was conferred on him. He was associated with the business of James Ballan- 
tine & Co., publishers, Edinburgh, and in 1826 this house failed for close on 
$600,000. In four years Scott paid off $280,000, but he succumbed under the 




THOMAS CARLYLE 



Strain, and died, universally beloved and lamented, at Abbotsford, September, 
1832. He was buried in Dryburgh Abbey. 

Thomas Carlyle, essayist, biographer and historian, the most powerful, 
original, and brilliant writer that Britain has seen since the days of Shake- 
speare, was born in 1795, at Ecclefechan, Dumfries-shire, his father being a 
stone-mason and later a small farmer. He was educated at the School of An- 
nan, and latterly at the University of Edinburgh, where he studied seven years 
with a view to the church. At college his habits were lonely and contempla- 



SCOTLAND. 155 

tive, and the stories told of his immense reading are almost fabulous. About 
the middle of his curriculum he felt disinclined to enter the ministry, and after 
a short period spent in teaching at Dysart, Fifeshire, he adopted literature as 
his profession. His first efforts appeared in Brewster's " Encyclopaedia." In 
1824 appeared his translation of " Willhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." In 
1827 he married, and retired to his wife's lonely little estate of Craigen-puttock, 
amid the hills of Dumfries-shire. Here, from 1830 to 1833, he was employed 
upon probably his ablest work, "Sartor Resartus," which appeared in Eraser s 
Magazine. During the negotiations for its publication he removed to Chelsea, 
London, where he was recognized by the title of the " sage of Chelsea." Here 
he produced his " French Revolution," "Latter Day Pamphlets," "Life of John 
Stirling," " Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches," " Life of Frederick the 
Great," etc., etc. The honors conferred on Carlyle are almost too numerous 
to enumerate, the culminating one being his election as lord rector of Edin- 
burgh University. In 1875, l"*^ declined an offer of the Grand Cross of the 
Bath. He died in 1880, and was interred, by his own request, beside his 
mother, in the humble churchyard of his native Ecclefechan. 

The irregular surface of Scotland has given rise to much- picturesque and 
beautiful scenery. Her rivers, hurrying to the sea from their lofty sources, 
are especially pure and limpid, and their praises have been sung by many a 
Scottish bard, as well as by the nature-loving Wordsworth. None excels the 
" pastoral Tweed," on whose banks stand many a lordly hall and ruin of keel- 
house, castle, and monastery. Noticeable among these is Abbotsford, the 
seat of Sir Walter Scott, and Dryburgh Abbey, where he lies. Foremost of all 
the gems of fair Tweedside, however, is Melrose Abbey, the finest monasdc 
ruin in Europe. It is to it that Scott addresses his famed apostrophe, begin- 



nmtr: 



" If thou woLiIdst view fair Melrose aright 
Go visit it by the pale moonlight ; 
For the gay beams of lightsome day 
Gild but to flout the ruins grey." 

On this river stand the towns of Innerliethen and Galashiels, noted for the 
manufacture of the famous Scotch Tweeds, and at its month is Berwick, a town 
which at the union was left neither in Scodand nor England. For several 
miles before falling into the sea, the Tweed forms the boundary between the 
two countries. Passing the lonely Yarrow Bowing amid its green hills and 
famed St. Mary's Loch, we reach the Forth, which rising near Ben Lomond, 
flows east past the town of Stirling, with its castle-crowned rock, and then in 
various " links " through the rich " Carse of Stirling," till it widens into the 
Firth of Forth. The view from the castle of Sdrling is one of the finest in 
the world, being rivalled only by that from the hill of Kinnoul, on the Tay, 
from which can be surveyed the renowned " Carse of Gowrie," with its fine 



156 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

farms and smiling villages, the city of Perth, and, it Is said, the castles of seven 
noblemen. Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, is situated about two miles to 
the south of the Firth of Forth. From the beauty of its buildings, monuments 
and gardens, and above all for the picturesque grandeur of its situation, Edin- 
burgh is by many held to be the finest city in the world. Its port is Leith. 
The population of both towns is 250,000. North of the Forth is the Tay, the 
largest river in Scotland, on whose banks stands Perth, already mentioned. 
Farther down, on the Firth of Tay, stands the busy town of Dundee, with im- 
mense manufactories of jute, coarse linen, sail cloth, and a very large shipping 
trade. Its population is upwards of 120,000, being the third town in Scotland. 
To the north of Dundee lie the ports of Arbroath and Montrose, both with 
large linen manufactories. Still farther north we reach the " Highland IDee," 
Byron's river, over whose source broods the " dark Lochnagar." This is a 
grandly romantic stream, famous for the excellent sport it affords to the rod- 
fisher. On its banks stand the royal castle of Balmoral, as well as several 
other noble residences. Aberdeen, a town of some 90,000 inhabitants, a 
flourishing sea-port, lies at its mouth. 

Pursuing our journey north and westward we pass Peterhead and Fraser- 
burgh, on the Moray Firth, great seats of the herring and whale fisheries, and 
Elgin, with a ruined cathedral which ranks next to Melrose. We then reach 
the Spey, whose strath gives name to the dance-music of Scotland known as 
" Strathspeys." We are now fairly into the Highlands, and, a few miles west 
from Speymouth, we reach Inverness, the capital of the Highlands, a prosper- 
ous town of 1 5,000 inhabitants, with a fine old castle, vitrified fort, etc. In 
Inverness-shire are the islands of lona and Staffa. In the former, Columba, an 
Irish Saint, who Christianized Scotland, built his church and cell in the sixth 
century. The ruins of several churches are still to be seen, and in the holy 
ground the kings of Scotland used to be interred. Staffa is noted for a cave 
with basaltic columns of the same character as those of the Giant's Causeway. 

Scotland is essentially a country of mountains, the highest peaks being in 
the Highlands. Of these we note only Ben Nevis, a solitary mountain in the 
Grampian group, reaching a height of 4,400 feet. Ben Macdhui, and three 
others in the Cairngorm group, exceed 4,000 feet. The main range in the 
Lowlands separates Dumfries from Peebles and Lanarkshires. Broadlow and 
the Lowthers in this range approach 3,000 feet. 

It is impossible with the space at our disposal even to name the many 
natural objects of interest in Scotland. We cannot, however, omit its many 
fine passes, of which the Trosachs, famed by Scott, is an example; nor its in- 
land lochs or lakes, as Lochloniond, Lochkatrine, etc. ; nor its waterfalls, as the 
Falls of Clyde, of Foyers, Gray Mare's Tail, etc. 

Scottish history becomes of interest only after the death of Alexander III., 
one of the ablest and best of Scotland's kings, in i 286. An old rhyme tells 



SCOTLAND. 



157 



how, under him, the land had blessed peace, and plenty of "meal and malt." 
His heiress was his granddaughter, Margaret, tlie maiden of Norway, who 
died in 1 290, on her way to assume the crown. Forthwith there began a 
struggle for the succession, the two chief claimants being Edward Baliol and 
Robert Bruce. The question was referred to Edward I., of England, who de- 
cided in favor of Baliol, on his promising to recognize Edward as his over-lord. 
The bondage and humiliation of his position became intolerable to Baliol and 
his people, and they rose in opposition. Edward defeated Baliol's army at 
Dunbar, and Baliol having surrendered himself to Edward was, after being 
kept prisoner for three years, allowed to retire to France. Edward now 
treated Scotland as a conquered country. Earl Warenne was appointed gov- 
ernor, and all the offices were given to Englishmen. The Scots groaned 
under the degradation, and in 1297 William Wallace, whose name will be re- 
vered as long as patriotism, undaunted 
courage, and love of freedom is held in 
respect among men, appeared as the 
champion of his native land. He was but 
the son of a country gentleman of small 
estate ; yet, when he stood forth to rescue 
his country, he was joined by several of 
the nobility, and, notwithstanding the jeal- 
ousies of many nobles, he held the foe at 
bay for eight years, pushing at one time 
his victorious arms into England. At 
last, in 1304, he was betrayed into the 
hands of Edward, who ungenerously put 
him to a cruel death. But the struggle 
did not terminate with the patriot's death. 
Robert Bruce, son of the competitor, now 
stood forth to enforce his claim to the 
Scottish throne. He collected an army ; 
and the crown of Scotland was placed on 
his head by the Countess of Buchan, at 
Scone, Bruce sitting on the same " stone 
of fate " on which Queen Victoria sat 
when she was crowned queen of G^eat Britain. Long and bitter was the 
struggle between Edward, the " Hammer of the .Scots," and the gallant and 
skilful Bruce. At last, in 1307, Edward, determined to crush the Scots, sent 
for all his forces to meet him at Carlisle. But a sterner summons awaited 
himself, and he died near that city on July 7th, 1307. Bruce now drove the 
English out of the country step by step, till, in 1314, Edward II. raised an im- 
mense host and marched north to crush Bruce and the Scots forever. The 




158 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



armies met on the 24th of June, at Bannockburn, and the result was the com- 
plete and final discomfiture of the English, who never again ventured to at- 
tempt the conquest of Scotland. Constant wars there were between the lands, 
but this was greatly because the Scotch thus lent aid to France in defending 
itself against England, so that it passed into a proverb : 

" He that would France win must with Scotland first begin." 

Scotland lias been the scene of much partisan warfare, both secular and 
religious. Her oreat wars of this class have been in conjunction with affiliat- 




ROYAL REOALIA OF SCOTLAND. 



ing parties in her southern neighbor, England. Under the head of " England" 
we have already alluded to the most prominent of those wars, but none have 
furnished the literature of the world outside of Scotland with so great interest 
as the trial and execution of the unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots. Totally 
defeated at the batde of Langside, she fled to England in 1568, and threw her- 
self upon the protection of Elizabeth, by whom she was kept a prisoner for 
nineteen years, and then tried by a commission on the charge of engaging in 
a conspiracy against that unscrupulous queen's life. Her death was heroic, 
and her sad fate has drawn towards her the sympathy of the world. 

The next great event in Scottish history is the Reformation. The grand 




MARY STUART RECEIVING HER DEATH-SENTENCE. 



(159) 



160 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

distinction between this great change in Scotland and England was, that in 
Scotland the Reformation originated among the people themselves ; in Eng- 
land it was dictated by a lustful king. The key to the movement in Scotland 
is to be found in the popular rhyme : 

" The priests o' Melrose made good kale on Fridays when they fasted, 
They neither wanted beef nor ale as land's their neibor's lasted." 

Then followed some lines we do not print. John Knox, the reformer of 
Scotland, was but the type and outcome of the national mind. It has been said 
that no great national change of religion has been made by people on account 
of conviction of the error of the doctrines taught, but only by reason of the 
dissolute lives of the teachers. This was the case in Scotland. Had the 
priests and monks been temperate and chaste, Scotland might to this day have 
been Catholic. John Knox, by whose influence popery was extirpated in 
1 560, merely therefore embodied the will of the mass of the people, the way 
having been prepared for him by earlier reformers, as Patrick Hamilton and 
Wishart. One circumstance to be deplored in connection with the Scottish 
reformation is the destruction of the fine old abbeys, cathedrals and other re- 
ligious structures. It is said this was done in accordance with Knox's counsel : 
" Dingr down the nests and the corbies will flee awa'." Glassfow cathedral alone 
was rescued through the energy of the " trades." Knox's grand characteristic 
was fearlessness. He braved an adverse court with Mary, the Catholic queen, 
at its head, as well as a stern nobility. When he was laid to rest in the church- 
yard of St. Giles, Edinburgh, the Earl of Morton, looking on the face of the 
dead, said, " there lies one who never feared the face of man." In Scodand 
he did a grand work by insisting on the establishment of its then unrivalled 
system of parish schools. 

The persecution of the Presbyterians by Laud, under Charles II., only 
served to attach the people more firmly to their own faith, and embitter them 
against episcopacy. At the accession of William and Mary to the throne of 
Great Britain in 1688, all endeavors at spiritual compulsion ceased, and the 
people dwelt at peace. In 1707 the union of England and Scotland was ac- 
complished, after which the history of England and Scotland became identified. 
On the whole, this survey, brief as it is, justifies Gladstone's proud statement 
that " Scotland was always able to hold her own with England ; " and that she 
was thus able "to meet England on terms of equality " has been a blessing to 
both countries. 




AMERICA. 




.^, 



"Westward the star of empire takes its way." 

O wrote Bishop Berkeley over a hundred and fifty years ago. 
And gazing with prophetic eye down the vista of the future, as 
if the glorious destiny of the as yet unborn republic to him 
was as clear as the noonday, and as if witnessing its emblem 
in that flag which is an image of the everlasting heaven with 
its bright stars against the blue background of the sky, and 
the red bands which accompany the sun in the west, he added 
the inspired words : 

" Time's noblest offspring is his last." 

Four hundred years have not yet passed away since Christopher Colum- 
bus, a sailor of Genoa, in Italy, made his first voyage to the American conti- 
nent. Two hundred and eighty years ago there was not a settler within the 
boundaries of the United States or its territories, and now it contains a popu- 
lation of 50,000,000, and with every day the number is increasing. It also 
contains one-sixth of the whole wealth of the world. " Every night," says a 
professor in Princeton College, " it is stronger by a regiment of fighting men 
and richer by |,2,ooo,ooo, than the night before." Nowhere in history can a 
parallel of such progress be found. 

In the United States we have almost every variety of climate, indeed it 

might almost be called a world of itself Fruits of all climates grown upon its 

own soil can be brought to the door of almost every inhabitant. The United 

States consumes every year 300,000,000 bushels of wheat, and still it has 

150,000,000 bushels to sell to other nations. And beneath its surface all the 

metals and minerals needed by man are stored away for his use. Coal, iron, 

gold, silver, copper, lead and oil, are to be found in abundance. 

11 (161J 



162 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The central portion of North America, from the Atlantic ocean to the Pa- 
cific, is included in the territory of the United States. Thirteen States, one by 
one, were founded along the Adantic coast, and twenty-five others have been 
founded since. Its area equals twenty-five times that of Great Britain, or fif- 
teen times those of such countries as France, Germany or Spain. Indeed Texas 
alone or California alone is larger than either. 

In 1882 there were more miles of railroad in the United States than in all 
Europe, and nearly as many as in all the world outside of the United States. 
The number is increasing at the rate of about 10,000 miles each year. There 
were three times as many miles of telegraph in the United States in 1882 as in 
any other country. This quantity is increasing atr the rate of about 20,000 
miles each year. 

In the United States there are nearly a quarter of a million public schools, 
and over six million pupils in daily attendance. In addition to schools of 
medicine, law, and theology, there are nearly four hundred colleges. There 
are more than 11,000 newspapers and periodicals. There are about 90,000 
congregations belonging to the various Christian denominations, all supported 
by the freewill offerings of those who belong to them, and all are more gen- 
erally prosperous than if they depended on government aid such as is the 
case in other countries. 

When we look forward into the future, so far as we are able to judge from 
the present conditions of progress, we can hardly avoid being startled at the 
result. It was noticed long ago that the population of the United States 
doubled every twenty-five years. This condition has steadily continued. Now 
this will make the population of the United States twenty years from now 
100,000,000. About the year 1930, it ought to be 200,000,000; and it has 
been supposed that before the end of the ne.xt century the population may be 
800,000,000 ; the number which good judges think the territory of the United 
States will support. 

But that which is even more starding than the increase in numbers is the 
increase in power. Every year 1,000,000 sewing machines are produced, 
and they can do more work than 1 2,000,000 women could do by hand. 
Thus the working power of the country as to sewing, grows far faster than 
even its women increase. It is the same with steam machinery in regard to 
men. It is true that the people of Great Britain and other civilized countries 
have the same advantages of machinery, but they have not the same resources 
for its continuous growth and development. Great Britain's coal supply will 
be used up in a century. We know already of 200,000 square miles of coal 
territory in the United States, forty times as much as in Great Britain, and 
twenty times as much as in all Europe together. 

It is thus evident that fifty years hence there will be no power on earth to be 
compared to the United States of America. There are no enormous armies re- 



AMERICA. 



163 



quired for self-protection, as in Russia, France, and Germany, and which ex- 
haust a nation's resources. We judge of what the future will be from the 
conditions at present at work, and from the changes which have taken place 
from the past to the present. It is the story of these changes, and the inci- 
dents connected therewith which we intend to make the subject of our special 
attention. Nevertheless, as it is our purpose to review the history of the 
whole American continent, a preliminary glance at its more northern region 
and at the nations of South and Central America will be requisite for the com- 
pleteness of our undertaking. 




SCENE IN CENTRAL AMEKlCA. 



About the year looo the Northmen or people of Norway and Denmark, 
after having settled in Iceland and Greenland, pushed their way to the coast 
of North America. Some of them setded in Rhode Island. These discov- 
erers sent back to their native country descriptions of the places discovered. 
Nevertheless, there is no reason to suppose that Columbus had any knowl- 
edge of these discoveries which had been forgotten long before his time. 
Even Greenland itself in the fifteenth century, was known to the Northmen 
only by the name of the lost Greenla7td. 

Most persons supposed, at that time, that the earth was a flat surface, and 



164 THE CxOLDEX TREASURY. 

few had any correct notions of its form. Among those who beheved it to be 
round, was Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa, in Italy, and who was 
born in the year 1447, whose parents were poor, and who were able to give 
him but little education. 

Columbus was sent to sea at an early age, yet he, improving all his op- 
portunities for observation and study, became one of the most intelligent 
mariners of the age. Believing the earth to be round, and that the shortest 
route from Europe to the eastern coasts of Asia would be found by sailing 
in a westerly direction, he anxiously sought the means for making the ex- 
periment. 

He visited Portugal — laid his plans before the king of that country — and 
requested that he might be supplied with a ship and seamen to navigate it; 
but he was laughed at. He applied to his native country, Genoa, where he 
met with a like ill success. He then went to Spain, where he arrived in great 
pdverty, having previously exhausted the little fortune which his industry had 
acquired. 

The first notice we have of his being in Spain, is as a stranger, on foot, 
stopping at the gate of a convent near the seaport of Palos, and asking for 
some bread and water for himself, and his little son Diego, who accompanied 
him. While they were partaking of this humble refreshment, the priest of 
the convent, Juan Perez, happened to pass by, and perceiving that Columbus 
was a foreigner, he entered into conversation with him. 

He soon learned from him the object of his travels ; detained him several 
days as a guest ; became a believer in his scheme of a western route to Asia ; 
and, after promising to maintain and educate his son Diego at the convent, he 
and some friends furnished Columbus with the means of continuing his jour- 
ney to Cordova, to visit Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain. 

When Columbus arrived at Cordova, he found the king and queen so 
busily engaged in preparations for war against the Moorish kingdom of 
Grenada, that they could find no time to listen to him, and he was therefore 
obliged to wait until a better opportunity offered, and in the meantime he 
supported himself by making and selling maps and charts. 

Finally, however, although most persons at Cordova regarded him as a 
kind of madman, or wild adventurer, yet some distinguished men became con- 
vinced of the justness of his theory, and, through their influence, he was en- 
abled to see the king, and explain to him his plans. 

Ferdinand was highly pleased with the idea of so important a discovery as 
CoJumbus hoped to make; but, being doubtful abouf the success of such a 
voyage as was proposed, he ordered the most learned men of the kingdom 
to assemble at Salamanca, to hear Columbus explain his theory, and then 
give their opinion of its merits. 

Several years, however, passed away, during which time he was kept in 



AMERICA. 



165 



suspense by the repeated promises of the knig and queen, that, when the war 
should be ended, and they could find a litde more leisure, they would give 
his project a more attentive consideration. 




H(>lT"rHArl OK PIZABBC3 
From the aulIlciuiL portrait preserved in the Museum .it Lima. 



At length Columbus, losing all patience after so many delays, gave up all 
hope of assistance from the throne, and was on the point of leaving Spain 
for the purpose of laying his plans before the king of France, when Queen 



166 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Isabella resolved to engage in the enterprise, and pledged her jewels to raise 
the necessary funds. Columbus, who was already on his way to France, was 
called back to court, where all the necessary arrangements were soon made. 

It was agreed that he should be high admiral of all the seas, and governor 
of all the lands that he should discover ; and that he should have a tenth part 
of all the profits arising from the merchandise and productions of the coun- 
tries under his government. Three small vessels were fitted out in the little 
seaport of Palos, the largest of which, called the Santa Maria, Columbus 
himself commanded. The names of the other vessels were the Pinta and the 
Nina. 

On board this fleet were ninety seamen, and a number of private adven- 
turers — in all, 1 20 persons. On the 3d of August, 1492, Columbus sailed 
from Palos, a small town on the seaboard of Andalusia, northwest of Cadiz. 
He first directed his course to the Canary Islands, where he remained several 
v\?eeks, refitting one of his vessels, and taking in wood and water and provis- 
ions for the voyage. 

On the 6th of September he departed from the Canaries, and sailed di- 
rectly westward into the unknown ocean, where no ship had ever before ven- 
tured. When the seamen lost sight of land their hearts failed them, for they 
seemed to have taken leave of the world ; and after they had sailed onward 
twenty days in the same direction, they began to be filled with dismay at the 
length of the voyage, and were anxious to return. 

So alarmed did they finally become that they threatened to throw Columbus 
overboard, and return without him. Still Columbus adhered to his purpose, 
and used every expedient to dispel the fears of the seamen, and encourage 
them to proceed. The favoring breeze, blowing steadily from the east, wafted 
the vessels rapidly forward over a tranquil sea, and Columbus found it neces- 
sary to keep his crews ignorant of the great distance they had gone. 

About the first of October several patches of herbs and weeds drifting 
from the west were seen, and many birds came sineing- around the vessels in 
the morning, and flew away at night. These signs of land were very cheering 
to the hearts of the poor mariners, and every one was eag'er to be the first to 
behold and announce the wished-for shore. But still day after day passed, and 
although signs of land became more and more frequent, yet the seamen be- 
came so impatient and clamorous, that it was with the greatest difficulty that 
Columbus could prevent an open mutiny. 

Beautifully does the German poet Schiller allude to his situation at this time: 

"Steer on, bold sailor — wit m;u- mock thy soul that sees the land, 
And hopeless at the helm maj- droop the weak and weary hand ; 
Yet ever — ever to the West, for there the coast must lie. 
And dim it dawns and glimmering dawns before thy reason's eye ; 
Yea, trust the guiding God — and go along the floating grave. 



AMERICA. 167 

Though hid till now — yet now behold the New World o'er the wave. 
With Genius, Nature ever stands in solemn unioa still ; 
And ever what the one foretells, the other shall fulfil." 

On the I ith of October, however, the signs of land had become so certain, 
that all murmuring ceased. On that day a green fish, such as keeps near the 
land, swam by the ships; and a branch of thorn, with berries on it, floated 
by ; they picked up, also, a reed, a small board, and a staff artificially carved. 
All were now on the lookout for land, and during the following night not an 
eye was closed in sleep. 

About ten o'clock Columbus himself saw a light which seemed to be on 
shore; and on the morning of the 12th the sailors saw land, and then arose 

" The cry 
That told the Indian isles were nigh 

To the world-seeking Genoese, 
When the land-wind from woods of palm, 

And orange-groves and fields of balm 
Blew o'er the Haytien seas." — Hallcck. 

During the ceremony of taking possession, the natives looked on with 
wonder and awe. When at the dawn of day they beheld the ships at a dis- 
tance, moving about without any apparent effort, they thought they were 
mighty sea-monsters, which had issued from the deep during the night. The 
shifting and furling of the sails, which resembled huge wings, filled them with 
astonishment. But when they saw the boats approach the shore, and a num- 
ber of strange beinors, clad in ofhtterino; steel, or raiment of different colors, 
landing on the beach, they fled in affright to the woods 

When, however, they saw that no attempt was made to pursue or molest 
them, they gradually recovered from their terror and approached the Span- 
iards, frequently prostrating themselves with their faces to the earth, and 
making signs of adoration. They finally ventured to touch the Spaniards, and 
to examine their hands, faces and clothing. They expressed great admiration 
at the white complexion of the strangers, whom they believed to be children 
of the sun. 

Nor were the Spaniards much less surprised at the sight of these strange, 
but simple and artless people, whose color, of a dark copper or dusky brown, 
was so different from that of Europeans. They wore no clothing ; their hair 
was coarse, straight and black ; they had no beards ; and their bodies, hands 
and faces, were painted with a variety of colors. Columbus, supposing that 
the land which he had discovered was a part of eastern or southern Asia, 
which was known by the name of India, called the inhabitants Indians. 

The world which Columbus discovered, and which should have received 
the name of Columbia, has been called America, from the name of a distin- 



168 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



guished Italian navigator, Americus Vespucius, who visited the country sev- 
eral times before the death of Columbus, and virrote a glowing description of 
it. It is supposed that the first voyage of Americus was made in the year 
1497, when he discovered the continent itself on the coast of Brazil, before it 
was seen by Columbus, and that this is the reason why it has been called 
America, after his name. 

Spanish adventurers never rested from their eager search after the treas- 




SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

ures of the new continent. An aged warrior called Ponce de Leon, fitted out 
an expedition at his own cost. He had heard of the marvellous fountain 
whose waters would restore to him the years of his wasted youth. He 
searched in vain. The fountain would not reveal itself to the foolish old man, 
and he had to bear without relief the burden of his profidess years. But he 
found a country hitherto unseen by Europeans, which was clothed with mag 



AMERICA. 169 

nificent forests, and seemed to bloom with perpetual flowers. He called it 
Florida. He attempted to found a colony in the paradise he had discovered. 
But the natives attacked him, slew many of his men, and drove the rest to 
their ships, carrying with them their chief, wounded to death by the arrow of 
an Indian. 

Ten or twelve years after Columbus had discovered the mainland there 
was a Spanish settlement at the town of Darien, on the isthmus. Prominent 
among the adventurers who prosecuted, from this centre of operations, the 
Spaniard's eager and ruthless search for gold was Vasco Nunez de Balboa — 
a man cruel and unscrupulous as the others, but giving evidence of wider 
views and larger powers of mind than almost any of his fellows. Vasco 
Nunez visited one day a friendly chief, from whom he received in gift a large 
amount of gold. The Spaniards had certain rules which guided them in the 
distribution of the spoils, but in the application of these rules disputes con- 
tiiiually fell out. It so happened on this occasion that a noisy altercation 
arose. A young Indian prince, regarding with unconcealed contempt the 
clamor of the greedy strangers, told them that, since they prized gold so 
highly, he would show them a country where they might have it in abundancfe. 
Southward, beyond the mountains, was a great sea ; on the coasts of that sea 
there was a land of vast wealth, where the people ate and drank from vessels 
of gold. This was the first intimation which Europeans received of the Pa- 
cific ocean, and the land of Peru on the western shore of the continent. 
Vasco Nunez resolved to be the discoverer of that unknown sea. Among 
his followers was Francisco Pizarro, who became, a iew years later, the dis- 
coverer and destroyer of Peru. 

Vasco Nunez gathered about 200 well-armed men and a number of 
dogs, who were potent allies in his Indian wars. He climbed with much toil 
the mountain-ridge which traverses the isthmus. After twenty-five days of diffi- 
cult journeying his Indians told him that he was almost in view of the ocean. 
He chose that he should look for the first time on that great sight alone. He 
made his men remain behind, while he, unattended, looked down upon the 
Sea of the South, and drank the delight of this memorable success. Upon 
his knees he gave thanks to God. and joined with his followers in devoudy 
singing the Tc Dcum. He made his way down to the coast. Wading into 
the tranquil waters, he called his men to witness that he took possession for 
the kings of Castile of the sea and all that it contained — a large claim, as- 
suredly, for the Pacific covers more than one-half the surface of the globe. 




MEXICO. 




"■'%»< N 1 518 the Spanish governor of Cuba sent an officer, Ferdinand 
TTjC Cortez, with ten ships and 600 men to conquer the empire 
Uj^ of Mexico. Having founded the colony of Vera Cruz as a 
basis of operations, Cortez then broke all his ships to pieces. 
This he did to insure success, for he thus shut himself and his sol- 
diers up in the invaded land. 

Montezuma was the emperor of the Mexicans. Gradually advanc- 
ing through his territories, the Spanish force at last reached the capital. 
Everywhere they were regarded as deities — children of the sun. Scrolls of 
cotton cloth were carried far and wide through the terror-stricken land, on 



MEXICO. 171 

which were pictured pale-faced bearded warriors, trampling horses, ships with 
spreading wings, and cannons breathing out lightning, and dashino- to the 
earth tall trees far away. The emperor admitted Cortez to his capital, but at 
the same time sent a secret expedition to attack Vera Cruz. The hopes of 
the Mexicans revived when they saw the head of a Spaniard carried throuo-h 
the land ; for then they knew that their foes were mortal. At this crisis 
Cortez resolved on a bold stroke. Seizing Montezuma, he carried him to the 
Spanish quarters, and forced him to acknowledge himself a vassal of Spain. 

Having held Mexico for six months, Cortez left it to defeat Narvaez, 
whom the Cuban government, jealous of his success, had sent ao-ainst him 
with nearly a thousand men. 

During his absence all was uproar in the capital. Two thousand Mexican 
nobles had been massacred for the sake of their golden ornaments; and the 
Spanish quarters were surrounded by a furious crowd. The return of Cortez, 
with a force increased by the troops of the defeated Narvaez, was oil cast on 
flame. Montezuma, striving to mediate, was killed by a stone flung by one 
of his angry subjects. The Spaniards were, for a time, driven from the city ; 
but in the valley of Otumba (1520), the Mexicans were routed, and their 
golden standard was taken. Soon afterwards the new emperor was made 
prisoner, stretched on burning coals, and gibbeted. The siege of Mexico, 
lasting seventy-five days, was the final blow. 

The fall of Peru followed soon after the conquest of Mexico, and from 
Peru the tide of Spanish conquest flowed southward to Chili. The river 
Plata was explored, Buenos Ayres was founded, and communication was 
opened from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Forty years after the landing of 
Columbus the margins of the continent bordering on the sea had been sub- 
dued and possessed, and some progress had been made in gaining knowledo-e 
of the interior. There had been added to the dominions of Spain vast re- 
gions, whose coast-line on the west stretched from Mexico southward for the 
distance of 6,000 miles — regions equal in length to the whole of Africa, and 
largely exceeding in breadth the whole of the Russian Empire. 

For 300 years Spain governed the rich possessions which she had so easily 
won. At the close of that period the population was about sixteen millions — 
a number very much smaller than the conquerors found on island and con- 
tinent. The increase of three centuries had not repaired the waste of thirty 
years. Of the 1 6,000,000, two were Spaniards ; the remainder were Indians, 
negroes, or persons of mixed descent. 

At length the time came in which Mexico, in concert with the other 
colonies of Spanish America, threw off the intolerable yoke of the mother 
country. 

When the Mexicans gained their independence they raised to the throne 
a popular young officer, whom they styled the Emperor Augustine First. 



172 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




Catholic 



They were then a people utterly priest-ridden and fanatical ; and the clergy 
whom they superstitiously revered were a corrupt and debased class. The 
reformers had avowed the opinion that the church was the origin of most of 
the evils which afflicted the country. The emperor, while he offered equal 
civil rights to all the inhabitants of Mexico, sought to gain the clergy to his 

cause by guaranteeing the 

WW 



existence of the 
Church. But a monarchy 
proved to be impossible, 
and in less than a year a 
republican uprising, headed 
by Santa Anna, forced the 
emperor to resign. A 
federal republic was then 
organized, with a constitu- 
tion based on that of the 
great republic whose terri- 
tories adjoined those of 
^lexico. 

For the next thirty years 
Santa Anna is the promi- 
nent figure in Mexican 
politics. He was a tall, 
thin man, with sun-browned 
face, black curling hair, 
and dark, vehement eye. 
He possessed no states- 
manship, and his general- 
ship never justified the 
confidence with which it 
was regarded by his coun- 
trymen. But he was full 
of reckless bravery and 
dash, and if his leading 
was faulty, his personal 
bearing in all his numer- 
ous battles was irreproach- 
able. His popularity ebbed 
He repelled an invasion by 
triumphs raised him to the 



HIDALGO Y. COSTELLO. 
Father of Mexican Independence. 



and flowed with the exigencies of the time. 

Spain and an invasion by France, and these 

highest pinnacle of public favor. Then his power decayed, and he was forced 

to flee from the country. When new dangers threatened the unstable nation 



MEXICO. 173 

he was recalled from his banishment and placed in supreme command. At 
one period one of his legs, which had been shattered in battle, was interred 
with solemn funeral service and glowing patriot oratory. A little later the ill- 
fated limb was disinterred, and kicked about the streets of Mexico with 
every contumelious accompaniment. His public life was closed by a hasty 
flight to Havana — his second movement of that description. 

In 1846 war was declared between Mexico and the United States.. At 
Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and at Buena Vista the Mexicans were totally 
defeated by General Taylor. General Scott, of the United States army, be- 
sieged Vera Cruz and captured it. He then proceeded against the capital. 
At length the Mexican army, under Santa Anna, were routed by Generals 
Shields and Pierce, and the city government sent to ask a truce. On the 7th 
of September the army was again in motion ; the great fortress of Chapultepec, 
commanding the city, was taken by storm ; Santa Anna and his officers fled ; 
and on the 4th the flag of the United States floated over the ancient home of 
the Montezumas. With the surrender of her capital the power of Mexico 
was broken. By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Upper California, with 
Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, was ceded to the United States. 
The latter agreed to pay $1 5,000,000, and assume debts due American citizens 
from the Mexican government. The other captured places were restored. 

On account of abuses in the government, there came a demand for reform, 
and the Mexicans took a large step towards the vindication of their liberties. 
The leader in this revolution was Benito Juarez, a Toltec Indian, one of that 
despised race which the Aztecs subdued centuries before the Spanish invasion. 
This man had imbibed the liberal and progressive ideas which now prevailed in 
all civilized countries; and his personal ability and skill in the management of 
affairs gained for him the opportunity of conferring upon Mexico the fullest 
measure of political blessing which she had ever received. The Liberals were 
now a majority in Congress, and the gigantic work of reformation began. But 
Juarez and his government were afterwards driven for a time from the capital. 
The aims of his enemies concurred with an ambition which at that time ani- 
mated the restless mind of Emperor Napoleon III. The Mexican clergy, 
supported by the court of Rome, gave encouragement to his idle dream. 
An expedition was prepared, in which England and Spain took reluctant 
and hesitating part, and from which they quickly withdrew. 

A French army entered the capital of Mexico. Juarez and his govern- 
ment withdrew to maintain a patriot war, in which the mass of the people 
zealously upheld them. An Austrian prince sat upon the throne of Mexico 
without support, excepting that which the clerical party of Mexico and the 
bayonets of France supplied. A few years earlier or later these things dared 
not have been done ; but when the French troops entered Mexican territory the 
United States waged, not yet with clear prospect of success, a struggle on 



174 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



the results of which depended their own existence as a nation. They had 
no thought to give to the concerns of other American states, and they 
wisely suffered the empire of Mexico to run its sad and foolish course. But 
now the southern revolt was quelled, and the government at Washington, 
having at its call a million of veteran soldiers, intimated to Napoleon that the 
farther stay of his troops on the American continent had become impos- 
sible. The emperor waited no second summons. When the French were 
gone the patriot armies swept over the country, and this deplorable attempt 
to set up imperialism came to an ignominious close. The Emperor Maxi- 
milian fell into the hands of 
his enemies, and was put 
to death according to the 
terms of a decree which his 
own gfovernment had framed. 

Juarez was again elected 
president, and returned with 
his Congress to the city of 
Mexico. During his whole 
term of office he had to main- 
tain the Liberal cause in arms 
against the tenacious priest- 
hood and its followers. When 
he died, a Liberal president, 
named Porfirio Diaz, was 
chosen to succeed him. 

Benito Juarez was an un- 
mixed Toltec. Porfirio Diaz, 
the strongest Mexican of his 
times, and in many respects the 
General Grant of his country, 
BENITO JUAREZ, EX-PRESIDENT OF MEXICO. jg Qf pilxed blood. Every- 
where the Aztec face, unmistakable in its pathetic features, goes with the 
best and worst types of Mexican character. 

It may be at first a matter of surprise that the average Mexican seems to 
know so litde of his own country, and to have so little local pride in its history 
and interesting antiquities. It is not strange to him ; he has always been 
there, and has never thought much about it. It is not yet a show country. 
When this feature changes, it will, as usual, change too much. 

Another strange thing is, that with an advancement in art that surprises 
every visitor, the country has no literature. The galleries of the capital are 
filled with specimens of the old and new schools, many of which would be 
masterpieces in any country. Yet there is not a publishing house in the re- 




MEXICO. 



175 



public, and the three or four bookstores of the city are filled with French 
works, either scientific or novels. 

Chihuahua, to the traveller from the United States, may be regarded as the 
first Mexican city. It contains some 18,000 inhabitants, and is a permanent 
departure from the adobe style of architecture, which has always been re- 
garded by us as the inevitable and unavoidable building material of the 
Mexican. 

A hundred miles south of Chihuahua is Santa Rosalia, famous among 
Mexicans for its sanitary hot-springs. It is reported by the few foreigners 
who have yet visited it to be, as to the quality of its waters, probably the 
finest- health resort in America. 

The City of Mexico, with a population variously estimated at from 225,000 
to 300,000, is situated upon ground that was once the bed of a lake. The 
lake was what is now the Valley of Mexico. 




CYPRESS TREES AT CH APULTEPEC. 

The streets are some sixty feet wide, with wide sidewalks, and the city lies 
closely built in regular squares. The buildings are mosdy of two, though 
somedmes of three or four stories. The square in front of the cathedral, 
called the Zocalo, Is the place of universal resort, though there are two or 
three others, handsome and clean, but not so well kept nor so expensively 
ornamented. 

It is the city of churches, as Mexico is unquestionably the land of churches. 
Their towers, always handsome, assist very much in making up the general 
view. 

Fenced by impassible barriers for some three hundred years, this old, rich, 
quaint and isolated empire has suddenly become the coming country of the 
capitalist and the tourist ; a land in which, by the invitation of its people, we 
have already begun an endless series of beneficent and bloodless conquests. 



PERU. 




fHE conqueror of Peru was Francisco Pizarro, a man who could 
neither read nor write, and whose early days were spent in herd- 
ing swine. Running away from home in early life, he became a 
"^ soldier, and saw much service in the New World. Between 1524 
and 1528, while exploring the coast of Peru, he formed the design of 
conquering that golden land, being tempted by the abundance of the 
precious metals, which glittered everywhere, forming not merely the 
ornaments of the people, but the commonest utensils of everyday life. 

He sailed from Panama with 186 men, in February, 1531. A civil war 
then raging in Peru between two brothers, who were rivals for the throne, 
made his task an easier one than it might otherwise have been. The strife 
seems to have been to some extent decided when the Spaniards landed, for 
Atahualpa was then Inca of Peru — so they called their kings. 

Pizarro found the Inca holding a splendid court near the city of Caxamarca ; 
and the eyes of the Spanish pirates gleamed when they saw the glitter of gold 
and jewels in the royal camp. The visit of the Spanish leader was returned 
by the Inca, who came in a golden chair, encompassed by t 0,000 guards. A 
friar, crucifix in hand, strove to convert 
this worshipper of the sun, telling him at 
the same time that the pope had given 
Peru to the King of Spain. The argu- 
ment was all lost on the Inca, who could 
not see how the pope was able to give 
away what was not his, and who, besides,' 
scorned the idea of giving up the wor- 
ship of so magnificent a god as the sun. 
The furious priest turned with a cry for^,^ 
vengeance to the Spaniards. They were! 
ready, for it was all a tragedy well re-\(j 
hearsed beforehand. The match was laid 
to the levelled cannon, and a storm of 
shot from great guns and small burst 
upon the poor huddled crowd of Peru- 
vians, amid whose slaughter and dismay 
Pizarro carried off the Inca. As the price 01 freedom, Atahualpa offered to 
fill his cell with gold. The offer was accepted, and the treasure divided among 
the Spaniards; but the unhappy Inca was strangled after all. The capture of 
Cuzco completed the wonderfully easy conquest of Peru. 

(176) 




THE INCA HUASCAR. 



PERU. 177 

Pizarro founded Lima in 1535; and, six years later, was slain by con- 
spirators, who burst into his palace during the mid-day siesta. 

Of all the cities of South America, Lima has an aspect mgst peculiar and 
original, the buildings being little more than huge cages of canes plastered 
over with mud." The city is said to be " the paradise of women, the purga- 
tory of husbands, and the hell of donkeys." 

In the war for independence by the South American provinces Peru was 
the last stronghold of Spanish authority. Spain put forth her utmost effort to 
maintain her hold upon the mineral treasures which were almost essential to 
her existence. The desire for independence was less enthusiastic here than in 
the other provinces ; the insurrectionary movement was more fitful and more 
easily suppressed. When independence had triumphed everywhere besides, 
the Peruvian republic was struggling hopelessly for existence. The Span- 
iards had possessed themselves of the capital ; a reactionary impulse had 
spread itself among the soldiers, and numerous desertions had weakened and 
discouraged the patriot ranks. The cause of liberty seemed almost lost in 
Peru ; the old despotism which had been cast out of the other provinces 
seemed to regain its power over the land of the Incas, and threatened to 
establish itself there as a standing menace to the liberty and peace of the 
continent. 

At length on the plain of Ayacucho, 12,000 Royalists encountered the Re- 
publican army under Bolivar, numbering scarcely more than one-half the 
opposing forces. The outnumbered independents fought bravely, but the for- 
tune of war seemed to declare against them, and they were being driven from 
the field with a defeat which must soon have become a rout. At that perilous 
moment an English general commanding the Republican cavalry struck with 
his force on the flank of the victorious but disordered Spaniards. The charge 
could not be resisted. The Spaniards fled from the field, leaving their artillery 
and many prisoners, among whom was the viceroy. A final and decisive vic- 
tory had been gained. The war ceased ; Peru and Chili were given over by 
treaty to the friends of liberty, and the authority which Spain had so vilely 
abused had no longer a foothold on the soil of the great South American 
continent. 

Peru is believed to extract silver from her mines to the annual value of a 
million sterling — an amount somewhat smaller than these mines yielded down 
to the war of independence. Peru exports chiefly articles which can be 
obtained without labor or thought. The guano, heaped in millions of tons on 
the islands which stud her coasts, was sold to European speculators and 
carried away by European ships. But these vast stores seem to approach ex- 
haustion. Fortunately for this spendthrift government, discovery was made 
some years ago of large deposits of nitrate of soda, from the sale of which an 

important revenue is gained. 
12 



178 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

For Peru, lying chiefly between lofty mountain ranges remote from the sea, 
railway communication is of prime importance. In the time of one of her best 
presidents there was devised a scheme of singular boldness; and by the help 
of borrowed money, on which no interest is paid, it has been partially executed. 
A railway line, setting out from Lima, on the Pacific, crosses the barren plain 
which adjoins the coast, climbs the western range of the Andes to a height of 
nearly sixteen thousand feet, and traverses the table-land which lies between 
the great lines of mountain. When completed, it will reach some of the tribu- 
taries of the Amazon at points where these become navigable, thus connecting 
the Pacific with the Atlantic where the continent is the broadest. There are, 
in all, about fourteen hundred miles of railway open for traffic in Peru, three- 
fourths of which are orovernnient works. 



VENEZUELA. 



I 




HE provinces which bordered on the Gulf of Mexico had a larger 
intercourse with Europe than their sister states, and were the first 
to become imbued with the liberal ideas which were now oraininof 



prevalence among the European people. Seven of these northern 
provinces formed themselves into a union, which they styled the 
Confederation of Venezuela. They did not yet assert independence 
of Spain ; but they abolished the tax which had been levied from 
the Indians ; they declared commerce to be free ; they gathered up the Spanish 
governor and his councillors, and, having put them on board ship, sent them 
decisively out of the country. Only one step remained, and it was speedily 
taken. Next year Venezuela declared her independence, and prepared as she 
best might to assert it in arms against the forces of Spain. 

One of the fathers of South American independence was Francis Miranda. 
He was a native of Caraccas, and now a man in middle life. It was this man 
who laid the foundations of independence, but he himself was not permitted to 
see the triumph of the great cause. The patriot arms had made some prog- 
ress, and high hopes were entertained ; but the province was smitten by an 
earthquake, which overthrew several towns and destroyed 20,000 lives. The 
priests interpreted this calamity as the judgment of heaven upon rebellion, 
and the credulous people accepted their teaching. The cause of independence 
thus supernaturally discredited, was for the time abandoned. Miranda him- 
self fell into the hands of his enemies, and perished in a Spanish dungeon, and 
his lieutenant, Don Simon Bolivar, was the destined vindicator of the liberties 
of the South American continent. 



CHILI. 



<i ]»^^^^^>|f] F all the Spanish provinces of America, Chili furnishes the best 
example of a well-ordered, settled, and prosperous state. Its 
, ^ ,j_,^^ area is only one-fifth and its population one-fourth that of 
^'^'^^^'i. Mexico, but its foreign commerce is nearly one-half larger.. 
^■S'^^^ F*^"" ^''''s commerce its situation is peculiarly favorable. Chili,. 
■*'^^^^'* a long and narrow country, lies on the Pacific, with which it 
'^Sj^"^ communicates by upward of fifty seaports. It is, therefore,, 

only in small measure dependent for its progress upon railways and navigable- 
rivers. 

For sixteen years after throwing off the Spanish yoke. Chili was governed' 
despotically, without a constitution. During those years constant disorders 
prevailed. At length the general wish of the nation was gratified. A consti- 
tution was promulgated, under which the franchise was bestowed on every 
married man of twenty-one years, and on every unmarried man of twenty-five^ 
who was able to read and write. With this constitution the people have been, 
satisfied. The government has been throughout in the hands of a moderate 
conservative party, which has directed public affairs with firmness and wisdom, 
and has manifested zeal in the correction of abuses. Opposing parties have 
not in Chili, as in the neighboring states, wasted the country by their fierce 
contentions for ascendency. In the exercise of a wise but rare moderation, 
the views of either party have been modified by those of the other. A method 
of government has thus been reached which men of all shades of opinion have 
been able to accept, and under which the prosperous development of the 
country has advanced with surprising rapidity. 



THE ARGENTINE CONFEDERATION. 




|UENOS AYRES, a city founded during the early years of the 
conquest, was the seat of one of the viceroyalties by which the 
Spaniards conducted the government of the continent. It 
stands on the right bank of the river Plate, not far from the 
ocean. The Plate and its tributary rivers flow through vast 
treeless plains, where myriads of horses and cattle roam at will 
among grass which attains a height equal to their own. When 
the dominion of Spain ceased, Buenos Ayres naturally assumed 
a preponderating influence in the new government. The provinces which had 
composed the old viceroyalty formed themselves into a confederation, with a 

(179) 



180 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

constitution modelled on that of the United States. Buenos Ayres was the 
only port of shipment for the inland provinces. Her commercial importance, 
as well as her metropolitan dignity, soon aroused jealousies which could not 
be allayed. Within a few years the confederation was repudiated by nearly 
all its members, and for some time each of the provinces governed itself inde- 
pendently of the others. 

The twenty-three years of despotism had done nothing to solve the political 
problems which still demanded solution at the hands of the Argentine people. 
The tedious and painful work had now to be resumed. The province of 
Buenos Ayres declared itself out of the confederation, and entered upon a 
separate career. The single state was wisely governed, and made rapid prog- 
ress in all the elements of prosperity. Especially it copied the New England 
common-school system. The thirteen states from which it had severed itself 
strove to repress or to rival its increasing greatness ; but their utmost efforts 
could scarcely avert decay. They declared war, in the barbarous hope of 
crushing their too prosperous neighbor. Buenos Ayres was strong enough to 
i'nflict defeat upon her assailants. She now, on her own terms, re-entered the 
confederation, of which her chief city became once more the capital. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 

^ '■ 

iINCE the time of the Spanish Conquest, in the sixteenth centuryi 
Central America has been the theatre of tribal wars, fierce relig- 
ious animosities, dictatorial usurpations, and volcanic eruptions 
and earthquakes, carrying widespread destruction and death. 
Guatemala — then Central America — originally composed all 
the narrow part of the continent, extending over 800 miles in length, and 
covering an area of 130,000 square miles. As a geographical division, what is 
now known as Central America would include the entire stretch of territory 
from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to the Isthmus of Darien, which forms the 
nexus between the two great continents of North and South America. But 
the political inter-relationship has so influenced the use of the name, that it 
now distinguishes that area confined in the five independent republics of North 
America, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, San Salvador and Guatemala. 
The Isthmus of Panama belongs to the division of South America, as a part 
of New Granada, while the Peninsula of Yucatan and the Isthmus of Tehuan- 
tepec are incorporated with North America, as parts of Mexico. The five 
provinces do not greatly vary in their physical characteristics. The surface of 
of the country is hilly, and in most parts mountainous, and the climate warm 
and very moist. 





BAY OF RIO. 



BRAZIL. 




ING John, of Portugal, to whom Columbus first made offer of his 
project of discovery, was grievously chagrined when the success 
of the great navigator revealed the magnificence of the rejected 
opportunity. Till then Portugal had occupied the foremost place 
^■- as an explorer of unknown regions. She had already achieved the 
discovery of all the western coasts of Africa, and was now about to open 
a new route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope. Suddenly her fame 
was eclipsed. While she occupied herself with small and barren discoveries, 
Spain had found, almost without the trouble of seeking, a new world of vast 
extent and boundless wealth. 

Portugal had obtained from the Pope a grant of all lands which she should 
discover in the Atlantic, with the additional advantage of full pardon for the 
sins of all persons who should die while engaged in the work of exploration. 
The sovereigns of Spain were equally provident in regard to the new territory 
which they were now in course of acquiring. The accommodating Pope, will- 
ing to please both powers, divided the world between them. He stretched an 
imaginary line from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the 

(181) 



182 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Cape de Verd islands : all discoveries on die eastern side of this boundary 
were given to Portugal, while those on the west became the property of Spain. 
Portugal, dissatisfied with the vast gift, proposed that another line should be 
drawn, stretching from east to west, and that she should be at liberty to pos- 
sess all lands which she might find between that line and the South Pole. 
Spain objected to this huge deduction from her expected possessions. Ulti- 
mately Spain consented that the papal frontier should be removed westward 
to a distance of 270 leagues from the Cape de Verd islands, and thus the dis- 
pute was happily terminated. 

Six years after this singular transaction, by which two small European 
states parted between them all unexplored portions of the earth, a Portuguese 
navigator — Pedro Alvarez Cabral — set sail from the Tagus in the prosecution 
of discovery in the East. He stood far out into the Atlantic, to avoid the 
calms which habitually baffled navigation on the coast of Guinea. His reckon- 
ing was loosely kept, and the ocean currents bore his ships westward into 
regions which it was not his intention to seek. After forty-five days of voyag- 
ing he saw before him an unknown and une.xpected land. In searching for 
the Cape of Good Hope he had reached the shores of the great South Ameri- 
can Continent, and he hastened to claim for the King of Portugal the territory 
he had found, but regarding the extent of which he had formed as yet no con- 
jecture. Three Spanish captains had already landed on this part of the con- 
tinent and asserted the right of Spain to its ownership. For many years Spain 
maintained languidly the right which priority of discovery had given. But 
Portugal, to whom an interest in the wealth of the New World was an object 
of vehement desire, took effective possession of the land. She sent out sol- 
diers ; she built forts ; she subdued the savage natives; she founded colonies; 
she established provincial governments. Although Spain did not formally 
withdraw her pretentions, she gradually desisted from attempts to enforce 
them ; and the enormous territory of Brazil became a recognized appendage of 
a petty European state whose area was scarcely larger than the one-hundredth 
part of that which she had so easily acquired. 

For 300 years Brazil remained in colonial subordination to Portugal. Her 
boundaries were in utter confusion, and no man alon^ all that vast frontier 
could tell the limits of Portuguese dominion. Her Indians were fierce, and 
bore with impatience the inroads which the strangers made upon their pos- 
sessions. The French seized the Bay of Rio de Janeiro. The Dutch con- 
quered large territories in the north. But in course ot years these difficulties 
were overcome. The foreigners were expelled. The natives were tamed, 
pardy by arms, partly by the teaching of zealous Jesuit missionaries. Some 
progress was made in opening the vast interior of the country and in fixing 
its boundaries. On the coast population increased and numerous settlements 
sprung up. The cultivation of coffee, which has since become the leading 




A 



(183) 



184 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Brazilian industry, was introduced. Some simple manufactures were estab- 
lished, and the country began to export her surplus products to Europe. 
There was much misgovernment ; for the despotic tendencies of the captains- 
general who ruled the country were scarcely midgated by the authority of 
the distant court of Lisbon. The enmity of Spain never ceased, and from 
time to time burst forth in wasteful and bloody frontier wars. Sometimes 
the people of cities rose in insurrection against the monopolies by which 
wicked governors wronged them. Occasionally there fell out quarrels be- 
tween different provinces, and no method of allaying these could be found ex- 
cepting war. Once the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked by the French. 
Brazil had her full share of the miseries which the foolishness and the evil 
temper of men have in all ages incurred. These hindered, but did not alto- 
gether frustrate, the development of her enormous resources. 

During the eighteenth century the Brazilian people began to estimate 
more justly than they had done before the elements of national greatness 
which surrounded them, and to perceive how unreasonable it was that a 
country almost as large as Europe should remain in contented dependence 
on one of the most inconsiderable of European states. The English colonies 
in North America threw off the yoke of the mother country. The air was 
full of those ideas of liberty which a year or two later bore fruit in the French 
Revolution. A desire for independence spread among the Brazilians, and ex- 
pressed itself by an ill-conceived rising in the province of Minas Geraes. 
But the movement was easily suppressed, and the Portuguese government 
maintained for a little longer its sway over this noblest of colonial posses- 
sions. 

During the earlier years of the French Revolution, Portugal was permitted 
to watch in undisturbed tranquillity the wild turmoils by which the other 
European nations were afflicted. At length it seemed to the Emperor Napo- 
leon that the possession of the Portuguese kingdom, and especially of the 
Portuguese fleet, was a fitting step in his audacious progress to universal do- 
minion. A French army entered Portugal ; a single sentence in the Monitciir 
informed the world that " the House of Bra^anza had ceased to reign." The 
French troops suffered so severely on their march, that ere they reached Lis- 
bon they were incapable of offensive operations. But so timid was the gov- 
ernment, so thoroughly was the nation subdued by fear of Napoleon, that it 
was determined to offer no resistance. The capital of Portugal, with a popu- 
lation of 300,000, and an army of 14,000, opened its gates to 1,500 ragged 
and famishing Frenchmen, who wished to overturn the throne and degrade 
the country into a French province. 

Before this humiliating subm-ission was accomplished, the royal family had 
gathered together its most precious effects, and with a long train of loUowers 
set sail for Brazil. The insane queen was accompanied to the place of em- 



BRAZIL. 185 

barkation by the prince regent and the princes and princesses of the family, 
all in tears; the multitudes who thronged to look upon the departure lifted 
up their voices and wept. Men of heroic mould would have made themselves 
ready to hold the capital of the state or perish in its ruins; but the faint- 
hearted people of Lisbon were satisfied to bemoan themselves. When they 
had gazed their last at the receding ships they hastened to receive their con- 
querors and supply their needs. 

The presence of the government hastened the industrial progress of 
Brazil. The prince regent (who in a few years became king) began his 
rule by opening the Brazilian ports to the commerce of all friendly nations. 
Seven years later it was formally decreed that the colonial existence of Brazil 
should cease. She was now raised to the dignity of a kingdom, united with 
Portuoal under the same crown. Her commerce and agriculture increased; 
she began to regard as her inferior the country of which she lately had been 
a dependency. 

The changed relations of the two states were displeasing to the people 
of Portugal. The council by which the affairs of the kingdom were conducted 
became unpopular. The demand for constitutional government extended 
from Spain into Portugal. The Portuguese desired to see their king again 
in Lisbon, and called loudly for his return. The king consented to the wish 
of his people reluctantly ; for besides other and graver reasons why he should 
not quit Brazil, his majesty greatly feared the discomforts of a sea-voyage. 
His son, the heir to his throne, became regent in Brazil. 

The Brazilians resented the departure of the king. The Portuguese 
meditated a yet deeper humiliation for the state whose recent acquisition of 
dignity was still an offence to them. There came an order from the Cortes 
that the prince regent also should return to Europe. The Brazilians were 
now eager that the tie which bound them to the mother country should be 
dissolved. The prince regent was urged to disregard the summons to re- 
turn. After some hesitation he gave effect to the general wish, and intimated 
his purpose of remaining in Brazil. A few months later he was proclaimed 
emperor, and the union of the two kingdoms ceased. Constitutional govern- 
ment was set up. But the administration of the emperor was not sufficiently 
liberal to satisfy the wishes of his people. After nine years of deepening un- 
popularity he resigned the crown in favor of his son, then a child five years 
of age, and now, although still in middle life, the oldest monarch in the world. 
Brazil covers almost one-half the South American Continent, and has 
therefore an area nearly equal to that of the eight states of -Spanish origin 
by which she is bounded. She is as large as the British dominions in North 
America ; she is larger than the United States, excluding the untrodden wastes 
of Alaska. One, and that not the largest, of her twenty provinces is ten 
times the size of England. Finally, her area is equal to five-sixths that of 



186 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Europe. She has a sea-coast line of 4,000 miles. She has a marvellous 
system of river communication ; the Amazon and its tributaries alone are 
navigable for 25,000 miles within Brazilian territory. Her mineral wealth is 
so ample that the governor of one of her provinces was wont, in religious 
processions, to ride a horse whose shoes were of gold ; and the diamonds of 
the royal family are estimated at a value of ^3,000,000 sterling. Her soil and 
climate conspire to bestow upon her agriculture an opulence which is unsur- 
passed and probably unequalled. An acre of cotton yields in Brazil four times 
as much as an acre in the United States. Wheat gives a return of thirty to sev- 
enty-fold ; maize, two hundred to four-hundred-fold; rice, a thousand-fold. 
Brazil supplies nearly one-half the coffee which the human family consumes. 
An endless variety of plants thrive in her genial soil. Sugar and tobacco, as 
well as cotton, cofifee, and tea, are staple productions. Nothing which the 
tropics yield is wanting, and in many portions of the empire the vegetation 
of the temperate zones is abundantly productive. The energy of vegetable 
life is everywhere excessive. The mangrove seeds send forth shoots before 
they fall from the parent tree ; the drooping branches of trees strike roots 
when they touch the ground, and enter upon independent existence ; wood 
which has been split for fences hastens to put forth leaves ; grasses and other 
plants intertwine and form bridges on which the traveller walks in safety. 

But the scanty population of Brazil is wholly insufficient to subdue the 
enormous territory on which they have settled and make its vast capabilities 
conduce to the welfare of man. The highest estimate gives to Brazil a popu- 
lation of from eleven to twelve million. She has thus scarcely four inhabi- 
tants to every square mile of her surface, while England has upward of 400. 
Vast forests still darken her soil, and the wild luxuriance of tropical under- 
growth renders them well-nigh impervious to man. There are boundless 
expanses of wilderness imperfectly explored, still roamed over by untamed 
and often hostile Indians. Persistent but not eminently successful efforts have 
been made to induce European and now to induce Chinese immigration. The 
population continues, however, to increase at such a rate that it is larger by 
nearly two million than it was ten years ago. But these accessions are trivial 
when viewed in relation to the work which has still to be accomplished. It is 
said that no more than the one hundred and fiftieth part of the agricultural 
resources of Brazil has yet been developed or even revealed. 

Among the people of the cities of Brazil we find several classes. The en- 
terprising business class, planters, etc., is made up of native Brazilians, Portu- 
guese, and Europeans generally. The lower class forms a mixed multitude 
of Portuguese, aborigines and negroes. The children of this class go about 
nearly naked until ten or twelve years old. All of the lower orders have a 
passion for jewelry — gold, if practicable ; if not, gilt being acceptable — the 
main point being that it shall be big and brilliant. Negro girls, selling fruit, 




NIAGARA OF BRAZIL. 



(187) 



188 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



dress in white, and carry large trays on their heads, while their necks and 
ears are loaded down with massive chains, charms, and rings. 

Nowhere can an honest, hard-working man get on so well with such a 
minimum of money or ability as in the interior and smaller towns of Brazil. 
The services of a useful hand, whatever be his specialty, will be paid for at 
once, and at the highest possible value, and will always remain in demand, 
and it is simply his own fault if employment does not lead on to fortune, and 
to what we may call rank. 

Altogether, if we consider the present condition of Brazil as regards its 
government, the nature of its population, and the character ot its industries 
and natural products, it will be seen that there is here offered to the world a 
field for the exercise of human intelligence and energy quite unsurpassed, a 
climate and soil possessing peculiarly advantageous qualities, and a wealth of 
natural production almost unsurpassed. 

The Emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro II., was born in Rio Janeiro, Decem- 
ber 2d, 1825. He was crowned July i8th, 1841, and since his accession to 
the throne Brazil has been steadily increasing in power and usefulness. The 
emperor possesses remarkable literary and scientific acquirements, is a just 
and liberal sovereign, and enjoys the warm affection of his people. He is 
also a member of the French Academy of Sciences. 




CANADA. 




'^HE daz- 
1^ zling suc- 
cess which had 
crowned the 
efforts of Columbus awak- 
ened in Europe an eager 
desire to make fresh dis- 
coveries. Henry VII. of 
England had consented 
to equip Columbus for his voyage ; but the consent was withheld too long, and 
given only when it was too late. England and France had missed the splendid 
prize which Columbus had won for Spain. They hastened now to secure 

(189) 



HARBOR AND CITY OF QUEBEC. 



190 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

what they could. A merchant of Bristol, John Cabot, obtained permission 
from the king of England to make discoveries in the northern parts of America. 
Cabot was to bear all expenses, and the king was to receive one-fifth of the 
gains of the adventure. Taking with him his son Sebastian, John Cabot sailed 
straight westward across the Atlantic. He reached the American continent, of 
which he was the undoubted discoverer. The result to him was disappointing. 
He landed on the coast of Labrador. Being in the same latitude as England, 
he reasoned that he should find the same genial climate. To his astonishment 
he came upon a region of intolerable cold, dreary with ice and snow. John 
Cabot had not heard of the Gulf Stream and its marvellous influences. He 
did not know that the western shores of northern Europe are rescued from 
perpetual winter, and warmed up to the enjoyable temperature which they 
possess, by an enormous river of hot water flowing between banks of cold 
water eastward from the Gulf of Mexico. The Cabots made many voyages 
afterwards, and explored the American coast from extreme north to extreme 
south. 

The French turned their attention to the northern parts of the New World. 
The rich fisheries of Newfoundland attracted them. Jacques Cartier, a famous 
sea-captain, sailed, on a bright and warm July day, into the gulf which lies be- 
tween Newfoundland and the mainland. He saw a great river flowing into 
the gulf, with a width of estuary not less than loo miles. It was the day of St. 
Lawrence, and he opened a new prospect of immortality for that saint by giv- 
ing his name to river and to gulf He erected a large cross, thirty feet high, on 
which were imprinted the insignia of France ; and thus he took formal pos- 
session of the country in the king's name. He sailed for many days up the 
river between the silent and pathless forests, past great chasms down which 
there rolled the waters of tributary streams, under the gloomy shadow of huge 
precipices, past fertile meadow-lands and sheltered islands where the wild vine 
flourished. The Indians in their canoes swarmed around the ships, giving 
the strangers welcome, receiving hospitable entertainment of bread and wine. 
At length they came where a vast rocky promontory, 300 feet in height, 
stretched far into the river. Here the chief had his home ; here, on a site 
worthy to bear the capital of a great state, arose Quebec ; here, in later days, 
England and France fought for supremacy, and it was decided by the sword 
that the Anglo-Saxon race was to guide the destinies of the American 
continent. 

Numerous tribes of savages inhabited the Canadian wilderness. They 
ordinarily lived in villages built of logs, and strongly palisaded to resist the 
attack of enemies. They were robust and enduring, as the climate re- 
quired; daring in war, friendly and docile in peace. The torture of an enemy 
was their highest form of enjoyment ; when the victim bore his sufferings 
bravely the youth of the village ate his heart in order that they might become 



CANADA. 191 

possessed of his virtues. They had orators, poHticians, chiefs skilled to lead 
in their rude wars. Most of their weapons were of flint. They felled the 
great pines of their forests with stone axes, supplemented by the use of fire. 
Their canoes were made of the bark of birch or elm. They wore breastplates 
of twigs. It was their habit to occupy large houses, in some of which as many 
as twenty families lived together without any separation. Licentiousness was 
universal and excessive. Their religion was a series of grovelling super- 
stitions. There was not in any Indian language a word to express the idea 
of God ; their heaven was one vast banqueting-hall where men feasted per- 
petually. 

The origin of the American savage awakened at one time much controversy 
among the learned. Had there been a plurality of creative acts ? Had Euro- 
peans at some remote period been driven by the contrary winds across the 
great sea ? If not, where did the red man arise, and by what means did he 
reach the continent where white men found him ? When these questions were 
debated, it was not known how closely Asia and America approach each other 
at the extreme north. A narrow strait divides the two continents, and the 
Asiatic savage of the far north-east crosses it easily. The red men are Asiat- 
ics, who, by a short voyage without terrors to them, reached the north-western 
coast of America, and gradually pushed their way over the continent. The 
great secret which Columbus revealed to Europe had been forages known to 
the Asiatic tribes of the extreme north. 

In course of years it became evident that England and France must settle 
by conflict their claims upon the American continent. So many conflicting 
grants were made by the monarchs of the respective nations that no lawyer 
could reconcile them. The region called Nova Scotia was claimed by both 
British and French, the latter calling it by the name of Acadia. 

The opening lines of Longfellow's beautiful poem, "Evangeline," are de- 
scriptive of the region of Acadia : 

" This is the forest primeval. . The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, 
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, 
Stand like druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic, 
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms. 
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean 
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. 

In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, 

Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pre ^ 

Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward, 

Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number. 

Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labor incessant, 

Shut out the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the flood-gates 

Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadows. 



192 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfields 
Spreadhig afar and iinfenced o'er the plain ; and away to the northward 
Blomidon rose, and the forests old, and aloft on the mountains 
Sea-fogs pitched their tents, and mists from tlie mighty Atlantic 
Looked on the happy valley, but ne'er from their station descended." 

At the beginning of the war success was mainly with the French. The 
English were without competent leadership. An experienced and skilled offi- 
cer — the Marquis de Montcalm — commanded the French, and gained impor- 
tant advantage over his adversaries. He took Fort William Henry, and his 
allies massacred the garrison. He took and destroyed two English forts on 
Lake Ontario. He made for himself at Ticonderoga a position which barred 
the English from access to the western lakes. The war had lasted for nearly 

three years ; and Canada not mere- 
ly kept her own, but, with greatly 
inferior resources, was able to hold 
her powerful enemy on the defen- 
sive. 

But now the impatient English 
shook off the imbecile government 
under which this shame had been 
incurred, and the strong hand of 
William Pitt assumed direction of 
the war. He found among his 
older officers no man to whom he 
could intrust the momentous task. 
Casting aside the routine which 
has brought ruin upon so many 
fair enterprises, he promoted to 
the chief command a young sol- 
dier of feeble health, gentle, sensi- 
tive, modest, in whom his unerring 
perception discovered the qualities 
he required. That young soldier 
DEATH OF MONTCALM. ^^^ Jamcs Wolfe, who had already 

in subordinate command evinced courage and high military genius. To him 
Pitt intrusted the forces whose arms were now to fix the destiny of a con- 
tinent. 

While Wolfe lay on a sick-bed, a council of war was called, and Colonel 
Townshend proposed the skilfully audacious plan which was adopted by all. 
Above Quebec, a narrow path had been discovered winding up the precip- 
itous cliff, 300 feet high ; this was to be secretly ascended, and the Heights of 
Abraham gained, which overlook the city. Part of the British fleet, containing 




CANADA. 193 

that portion of the army which had occupied the northern shore, sailed past 
Quebec to Cap-Rouge. The rest of the troops marched up the south shore 
till they arrived opposite the men-of-war. Here embarking in flat-bottom 
boats, they dropped down the river the same night to Wolfe's cove, and almost 
unopposed, division after division scaled the Heights. When morning dawned, 
Wolfe's whole disposable force, in number 4,828, with one small gun, was 
ranged in batde-array upon the Plains of Abraham. 

The Heights of Abraham stretch westward for three miles from the de- 
fences of the upper town, and form a portion of a lofty table-land which extends 
to a distance from the city of nine miles. They are from two to three hundred 
feet above the level of the river. Their river-side is well-nigh perpendicular 
and wholly inaccessible, save where a narrow footpath leads to the summit. 

It was by this path — on which two men could not walk abreast — that Wolfe 
intended to approach the enemy. The French had a few men guarding the 
upper end of the path ; but the guard was a weak one, for they apprehended 
no attack here. Scarcely ever before had an army advanced to battle by a 
track so difhcult. 

The troops were all received on board the ships, which sailed for a few 
miles up stream. During the night the men re-embarked in a flotilla of boats 
and dropped down with the receding tide. They were instructed to be silent. 
No sound of oar was heard, or of voice, excepting that of Wolfe, who in a low 
tone repeated to his officers the touching, and in his own case prophetic, 
verses of Gray's " Elegy in a Country Churchyard." Quickly the landing- 
place was reached, and the men stepped silently on shore. One by one they 
climbed the narrow woodland path. As they neared the summit, the guard, 
in panic, fired their muskets down the cliff and fled. The ships had now 
dropped down the river, and the boats plied incessantly between them and the 
landing-place. All night long the landing proceeded. The first rays of the 
morning sun shone upon an army of nearly five thousand veteran British sol- 
diers solidly arrayed upon the Heights of Abraham, eager for battle and con- 
fident of victory. Wolfe marched them forward till his front was within a mile 
of the city, and there he waited the attack of the French. 

Montcalm had been wholly deceived as to the purposes of the British, and 
was unprepared for their unwelcome appearance on the Heights. He had 
always shunned battle; for the larger portion of his troops were Canadian 
militia, on whom little reliance could be placed. He held them, therefore, 
within his intrenchments, and trusted that the approaching winter would drive 
away his assailants and save Canada. Even now he might have sheltered 
himself behind his defences, anci delayed the impending catastrophe. But his 
store of provisions and of ammunition approached exhaustion, and as the Eng- 
lish ships rode unopposed in the river, he had no ray of hope from without. 
Montcalm elected that the great controversy should be decided by battle. 

13 



194 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

He marched out to the attack with 7,500 men, of whom less than one- 
half were regular soldiers, besides a swarm of Indians, almost worthless for 
fiorhtine such as this. The French advanced firincj, and inflicted considerable 
loss upon their enemy. The British stood immovable, unless when they 
silendy closed the ghasdy openings which the bullets of the French created. 
At length the hostile lines fronted each other at a distance of forty yards, and 
Wolfe gave the command to fire. From the levelled muskets of the Bridsh 
lines there burst a well-aimed and deadly volley. That fatal discharge gained 
the batde, gained the city of Quebec, gained dominion of a continent. The 
Canadian militia broke and fled. Montcalm's heroic presence held for a mo- 
ment the soldiers to their duty ; but the British, flushed with victory, swept 
forward on the broken and faindng enemy. Montcalm fell, pierced by a 
mortal wound; the French army in hopeless rout sought shelter within the 
ramparts of Quebec. 

Both generals fell. Wolfe was thrice struck by bullets, and died upon the 
field, with his latest breath giving God thanks for this crowning success. 
Montcalm died on the following day, pleased that his eyes were not to wit- 
ness the surrender of Quebec. The battle lasted only for a few minutes ; and 
having in view the vast issues which depended on it, the loss was inconsider- 
able. Only fifty-five Bridsh were killed and 600 wounded ; the loss of the 
French was twofold that of their enemies. 

From this time Canada remained in the hands of the English. When the 
American colonists revolted they desired the Canadians to act with them, and 
assist them in their efforts against the British government. This the Cana- 
dians declined to do, and the Americans invaded their territory, but were, 
however, repulsed. During the course of the peaceful years which followed, 
Canada increased steadily. 

In 18 1 2, Canada was again involved in war, and subjected to the miseries 
of invasion. ' 

Many Americans clung to the belief that the Canadians were dissatisfied 
with their government, and would be found ready to avail themselves of an 
opportunity to adopt republican institutions. But no trace of any such dis- 
posldon manifested itself The colonists were tenaciously loyal, and were no 
more moved by the blandishments than they were by the arms of their re- 
publican invaders. 

Soon after the declaradon of war an American army of 2,500 men set 
out to conquer western Canada. The commander of this force was General 
Hull, who announced to the Canadians that he had come to bring them 
" peace, liberty, and security," and was abl^ to overbear with ease any re- 
sistance which it was in their power to offer. But victory did not attach her- 
self to the standards of General Hull. The English commander. General 
Brock, was able to hold the Americans in check, and to furnish General Hull 



CANADA. 195 

with reasons for withdrawing his troops from Canada and taking up position 
at Detroit. Thither he was quickly followed by the daring Englishman, lead- 
incT a force of 700 soldiers and militia and 600 Indians. He was proceeding 
to attack General Hull, but that irresolute warrior averted the danger by an 
ignominious capitulation. 

A little later a second invasion was attempted, the aim of which was to 
possess Oueenstown. It was equally unsuccessful, and reached a similar ter- 
mination — the surrender of the invading force. Still further, an attempt to 
seize Montreal resulted in failure. Thus closed the first campaign of this lam- 
entable war. Everywhere the American invaders had been foiled by greatly 
inferior forces of militia, supported by a handful of regular troops. The war 
had been always distasteful to a large portion of the American people. On 
the day when the tidings of its declaration were received in Boston, flags 
were hunsr out half-mast hi^rh in token of general mourninof. The New 
England States refused to contribute troops to fight in a cause which they 
condemned. The shameful defeats which had been sustained in Canada en- 
couraged the friends of peace, and the policy of invasion was loudly de- 
nounced as unwise and unjust. 

The close of the war was equally disastrous to the invaders. Since then 
peace has reigned in Canada ; and it is with pleasure we note the friendly feel- 
ing that is constantly growing between the great Republic and the great 
Dominion. 

There still remain in the various provinces of the Dominion about 90,000 
Indians to represent the races who possessed the continent when the white 
man found it. Canada has dealt in perfect fairness with her Indians ; and the 
Indians have requited with constant loyalty the government which has treated 
them with justice. A rebellion was indeed raised by the French half-breed 
population, upon the Dominion of Canada desiring to add to its possessions 
the vast domain of the Hudson Bay Company. 

Their leader in the rebellion by which they hoped to throw off the au- 
thority of Canada and Great Britain, and establish themselves as an inde- 
pendent nation, was Louis Riel, an ambitious but reckless young French Ca- 
nadian. Kiel became president of the new republic, and gathered an armed 
force of 600 men to uphold the national dignity. He turned back at the 
frontier the newly appointed governor ; he seized Fort Garry, in which were 
ample stores of arms and provisions ; he imprisoned all who offered active 
opposition to his rule. The distant Canadian government looked on at first 
as amused with this diminutive rebellion. They did not think of employing 
force to restore order; they sought the desired end by persuasion. 

A party of loyal inhabitants made a hasty and ill-prepared rising against 
the authority of the provisional government. They were easily beaten back 
by the superior forces under Kiel's command, and some of them were taken 



196 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



prisoners. Among these was a Canadian named Scott, who had distinguished 
himself by his obstinate hostihty to the rule of the usurpers. Riel deter- 
mined to overawe his enemies and compel the adherence of his friends by 

an act of most conspicuous 
and unpardonable severity. 
Poor Scott was subjected 
to the trial of a mock tri- 
bunal, whose judgment sent 
him to death. An hour 
later he was led forth be- 
yond the gate of the fort. 
Kneeling, with bandaged 
eyes, among the snow, he 
was shot by a firing-party 
of intoxicated half-breeds 
almost before he had time 
to realize the cruel fate 
which had befallen him. 

This shameful murder in- 
vested the Red River rebel- 
lion with a gravity of aspect 
which it had not hitherto 
worn. There then arose in 
Canada a vehement demand 
that the criminals should be punished and the royal authority restored. The 
despatch of a military force sufficiently strong to overbear the resistance of 
the insurgent Frenchmen was at once resolved upon. 

Happily there was at that time in Canada an officer endowed with rare 
power in the department of military organization. To this officer, now well 
known as Sir Garnet Wolseley, was intrusted the task of preparing and com- 
manding the expedition. No laurels were gained by the forces which Colonel 
Wolseley led out into the wilderness ; for the enemy did not abide their com- 
inor, and their modest achievements were unnoticed amid the absorbina in- 
terest with which men watched the tremendous occurrences of the war then 
raging between Germany and France. Nevertheless, the Red River expedi- 
tion claims an eminent place in the record of military transactions. It is 
probably the solitary example of an army advancing by a lengthened and 
almost impracticable route, accomplishing its task, and returning home with- 
out the loss of a single life either in battle or by disease. And the wise fore- 
thought which provided so effectively for all the exigencies of that unknown 
journey is more admirable than the generalship which has sufficed to gain 
bloody victories in many recent wars. 




THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. 



CANADA. 197 

Under the constitution of Canada executive power is vested in the queen 
and administered by her representative, the governor general. This officer 
is aided and advised by a Privy Council, composed of the heads of the 
various great departments of state. The Senate is composed of seventy- 
eight members appointed by the Crown, and holding office for life. The 
House of Commons consists of 206 members. These are chosen by the 
votes of citizens possessing a property qualification, the amount of which 
varies in the different provinces. Canada gives the franchise to those per- 
sons in towns who pay a yearly rent of six pounds, and to those not in towns 
who pay four pounds ; New Brunswick demands the possession of real estate 
valued at twenty pounds, or an annual income of eighty pounds; and Nova 
Scotia is almost identical in her requirements. The duration of Parliament 
is limited to five years, and its members receive payment. The Parliament 
of the Dominion regulates the interests which are common to all the prov- 
inces ; each province has a lieutenant-governor and a legislature for the 
guidance of its own local affairs. Entire freedom of trad^ exists between the 
provinces which compose the Canadian nation. 

Canada is, in respect of extent, the noblest colonial possession over which 
any nation has ever exercised dominion. It covers an area of 3,330,000 
square miles. Europe is larger by only half a million square miles ; the 
United States is smaller to nearly the same extent. The distances with 
which men have to deal in Canada are enormous. From Ottawa to Winni- 
peg is 1,400 miles — a journey equal to that which separates Paris from Con- 
stantinople. The adventurous traveller, who would push his way from Win- 
nipeg to the extreme north-west, has a farther distance of 2,000 miles to trav- 
erse. The representatives of Vancouver island must travel 2,500 miles in 
order to reach the seat of government. The journey from London to the 
Ural mountains is not greater in distance, and is not by any means so diffi- 
cult. From Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, to New Westminster, the 
capital of British Columbia, there is a distance of 4,000 miles. 

The occupation of about one-half of the Canadian people is agriculture. 
In the old provinces there are nearly 500,000 persons who occupy agricul- 
tural lands. Of these, nine-tenths own the soil which they till ; only one- 
tenth pay rent for their lands, and they do so for the most part only until 
they have gained enough to become purchasers. The agricultural laborer — a 
class so numerous and so little to be envied in England — is almost unknown 
in Canada. No more than 2,000 persons occupy this position, which is to 
them merely a step in the progress toward speedy ownership. Land is easily 
acquired ; for the government, recognizing that the grand need of Canada is 
population, offers land to every man who will occupy and cultivate, or sells at 
prices which are little more than nominal. The old provinces are filling up 
steadily if not with rapidity. During the ten years from 1851 to 1S61 the 



198 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



land under cultivation had become greater by about one-half. During the 
following decade the increase was in the same proportion. Schools of agri- 
culture and model farms have been established by government, and the rude 
methods by which cultivation was formerly carried on have experienced vast 
ameliorations. Agriculture has become less wasteful and more productive. 
Much attention is given to the products of the dairy. Much care has been 
successfully bestowed upon the improvement of horses and cattle. The 
manufacture and use of agricultural implements has largely increased. The 
short Canadian summer lays upon the farmer the pressing necessity of swift 




SCENE ON THE EASTERN COAST OF CANADA. 

harvesting, and renders the help of machinery specially valuable. In the St. 
Lawrence valley the growing of fruit is assiduously prosecuted ; and the ap- 
ples, pears, plums, peaches, and grapes of that region enjoy high reputation. 
Success almost invariably rewards the industrious Canadian farmer. The 
rich fields, the well-fed cattle, the comfortable farm-houses, all tell of pros- 
perity and contentment. 

The fisheries of the Dominion form one of its valuable industries. The 
eastern coasts are resorted to by myriads of fishes, most prominent among 
which is the cod-fish, whose preference for low temperatures restrains its 
farther progress southward. Sixty thousand men and 25,000 boats find profit- 
able occupation in reaping this abundant harvest. A minister of fisheries 
watches over this great industry. Seven national institutions devote them- 



CANADA. 199 

selves to the culture of fish, especially of the salmon, and prosecute experi- 
ments in recard to the introduction of new varieties. 

Besides the outlays incurred in carrying on the ordinary business of gov- 
ernment, large sums, raised by loan, are annually expended on public works. 
Navigation on the great rivers of Canada is interrupted by numerous rapids 
and falls. Unless these obstructions be overcome, the magnificent water-way 
with which Canada is endowed will be of imperfect usefulness. At many 
points on the rivers and lakes canals have been constructed. The formidable 
impediment which the great Fall of Niagara offers to navigation is sur- 
mounted by the Welland canal, twenty-seven miles in length, and on which, 
with its branches, two and a half million sterling have been expended. Much 
care is bestowed, too, upon the deepening of rivers, and the removal of rocks 
and other obstructions to navigation. The vast distances of Canada render 
railways indispensable to her development. The Canadian government and 
people have duly appreciated this necessity. They have already constructed 
7,000 miles of railway, and are proceeding rapidly with farther extension. 

Between the Rocky mountains and the Pacific there lies a vast tract of 
fertile land, possessing an area equal to six times that of England and 
Wales. This is British Columbia — the latest-born member of the confedera- 
tion, which it entered only in 1871. The waters of the Pacific exert upon its 
climate the same softening influence which is carried by the Gulf Stream to 
corresponding latitudes in Europe, and the average temp&rature of Columbia 
does not differ materially from that of England. Gold is found in the sands 
of the rivers which flow down from the Rocky mountains; coal in abundance 
lies near the surface ; large tracts are covered with pine-forests whose trees 
attain unusual size ; many islands stud the placid waters which wash the 
western shores of the province ; many navigable inlets sweep far into the in- 
terior — deep into forests, for the transport of whose timber they provide 
ample convenience. In the streams and on the coasts there is an extraor- 
dinary abundance of fish ; on the banks of the Eraser river the English 
miner and the Indian fisherman may be seen side by side pursuing their avo- 
cations with success. The wealth of Columbia secures for her a prosperous 
future ; but as yet her development has only begun. Her population is about 
12,000, besides 30,000 Indians. Her great pine-forests have yet scarcely 
heard the sound of tiie axe ; her rich valleys lie untilled ; her coal and iron 
wait the coming of the strong arms which are to draw forth their treasures; 
even her tempting gold-fields are cultivated but slightly. Columbia must be- 
come the home of a numerous and thriving population, but in the meantime 
her progress is delayed by her remoteness and her inaccessibility. 




THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



" Lord of the Universe! shield us and guide us, 

Trusting Thee always, through shadow and sun : 
Thou hast united us, who shall divide us ? 
Keep us, O keep us, the Many in One ! 
Up with our banner bright, 
Sprinkled with starry light. 
Spread its fair emblems from mountain to shore ; 
While through the sounding sky. 
Loud rings the nation's cry, — 
Union and Liberty ! — one evermore ! " — 0. IV. Holmes. 

IGHTY years had passed since the discoveries by the Cabots 
before EngHshmen made any serious effort to estabhsh homes 
in North America. Under a patent from Queen Elizabeth in 
1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent 108 colonists to occupy Virginia, 
which had been so named by Elizabeth in honor of her own 
state as a maiden queen. This attempted settlement ended in 
total failure, a result brought about by the hardships of the 
wilderness and massacre by Indians. 

(200) 




THE UNITED STATES. 201 

Another attempt at colonization was made, and in course of time a perma- 
nent settlement was formed. 

The most enterprising and useful man among the settlers was Captain 
John Smith. He was a man of great strength — bold, active, judicious, and 
enterprising; and by his exertions alone the colony was often saved from fam- 
ine, and prevented from being destroyed by the Indians. 

When the welfare of the colony was in some measure secured. Smith set 
forth with a few companions to explore the interior of the country. He and 
his followers were captured by the Indians, and the followers were summarily 
butchered. Smith's composure did not fail him in the worst extremity. He 
produced his pocket-compass, and interested the savages by explaining its 
properties. He wrote a letter in their sight — to their infinite wonder. They 
spared him, and made a show of him in all the settlements round about. He 
was to them an unfathomable mystery. He was plainly superhuman. Whether 
his power would bring to them good or evil, they were not able to determine. 
After much hesitation they chose the course which prudence seemed to counsel. 
They resolved to extinguish powers so formidable, regarding whose use they 
could obtain no guarantee. Smith was bound and stretched upon the earth, 
his head resting upon a great stone. The mighty club was uplifted to dash 
out his brains. But Smith was a man who won golden opinions of all. The 
Indian chief had a daughter, Pocahontas, a child of ten or twelve years. She 
could not bear to see the pleasing Englishman destroyed. As Smith lay wait- 
ing the fatal stroke, she caught him in her arms and interposed herself be- 
tween him and the club. Her intercession prevailed, and Smith was set free. 

From lands originally belonging to Virginia a new colony had been formed, 
with a more liberal constitution both as to civil and religious rights. George 
Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, obtained from Charles I., in 1629, a grant of 
lands north of the Potomac, where all persons, but especially Catholics, might 
enjoy freedom of worship. The country was called Maryland in honor of the 
queen, Henrietta Maria. 

Great religious differences now existed in England. Many hundreds of 
Puritans, finding that there was no toleration for their views in England, sep- 
arated themselves from the church, and as many as were able sought an asy- 
lum in Holland. 

Eleven quiet and not unprosperous years were spent in Holland. The 
pilgrims worked with patient industry at their various handicrafts. They 
quickly gained the reputation of doing honestly and effectively whatever they 
professed to do, and thus they found abundant employment. Mr. Brewster 
established a printing-press, and printed books about liberty, which, as he had 
the satisfaction of knowing, greatly enraged the foolish King James. The 
little colony received additions from time to time as oppression in England be- 
came more intolerable. 



202 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



The instinct of separation was strong within the pilgrim heart. They could 
not bear the thought that their little colony was to mingle with the Dutchmen 
and lose its independent existence. But already their sons and daughters 
were formino- alliances which threatened this result. The fathers considered 
loner and anxiously how the danger was to be averted. They determined 
ao-ain to o-o on pilgrimage. They would seek a home beyond the Atlantic, 
where they could dwell apart and found a state in which they should be free 
to think. 

The Mayflower, in which the pilgrims made their voyage, was a ship of i6o 




PLYMOUTH ROCK. 



tons. The weather proved stormy and cold ; the voyage unexpectedly long. 
It was early in September when they sailed; it was not till the nth of No- 
vember that the Mayflower dropped her anchor in the waters of Cape Cod 
bay. 

It was a bleak-looking and discouraging coast which lay before them. 
Nothing met the eye but low sand-hills, covered with ill-grown wood down to 
the margin of the sea. The pilgrims had now to choose a place for their 
setdement. About this they hesitated so long that the captain threatened to 
put them all on shore and leave them. Litde expeditions were sent to explore. 
At first no suitable locality could be found. The men had great hardships to 



THK UNllKI) STATES. 



203 



endure. The cold was so excessive that the spray froze upon their clothes, 
and they resembled men cased in armor. At length a spot was fixed upon. 
The soil appeared to be good, and abounded in "delicate springs" of water. 
On the 23d of December, the pilgrims landed, stepping ashore upon a huge 
bowlder of granite which is still reverently preserved by their descendants. 
Here they resolved to found their setdement, which they agreed to call New 
Plymouth. 

Twenty-three years after the landing of the pilgrims the population of New 




AN INDIAN ATTACK. 



England had grown to 24,000. Forty-nine little wooden towns, with their 
wooden churches, wooden forts, and wooden ramparts, were dotted here and 
there over the land. There were four separate colonies, which hitherto had 
maintained separate governments. They were Plymouth, Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, and New Haven. There appeared at first a disposition in the 
pilgrim mind to scatter widely, and remain apart in small self-governing com- 
munities. For some years every little band which pushed deeper into the 
wilderness settled itself into an independent state, having no political relations 
with its neighbors. But this isolation could not continue. The wilderness 



204 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

had other inhabitants, whose presence was a standing menace. Within " strik- 
ing distance " there were Indians enough to trample out the solitary little 
English communities. On their frontiers were Frenchmen and Dutchmen — 
natural enemies, as all men in that time were, to each other. For mutual de- 
fence and encouragement, the four colonies joined themselves into the United 
Colonies of New England. This was the first confederation in a land where 
confederations of unprecedented magnitude were hereafter to be established. 

During the first forty years of its e.xistence the great city which we call 
New York was a Dutch settlement, known among men as New Amsterdam. 
That region had been discovered for the Dutch East India Company by Henry 
Hudson, who was still in search, as Columbus had been, of a shorter route to 
the East. The Dutch have never displayed any aptitude for colonizing; but 
they were unsurpassed in mercantile discernment, and they set up trading-sta- 
tions with much judgment. Three or four years after the pilgrims landed at 
Plymouth the Dutch West India Company determined to enter into trading 
relations with the Indians along the line of the Hudson river. They sent out 
a few families, who planted themselves at the southern extremity of Manhattan 
island. The whole country in their possession they called New Netherlands. 

The Dutch retained possession of New Netherlands until the year 1664, 
a period of about fifty years, when an English fleet arrived and demanded the 
surrender of the country. The Dutch governor at that time was Peter Stuy- 
vesant. He did all in his power to induce his people to take up arms and re- 
sist the English, and it was not until two days after the magistrates of New 
Amsterdam had agreed to the surrender that he reluctantly yielded it. Dur- 
ing the next year a Dutch fleet arrived and reconquered the country ; but in 
the succeeding year it was restored to the English, who held it until the 
American Revolution. 

The name of William Penn will ever be associated with all that is interest- 
ing in the early history of Pennsylvania. This man was the only son of Ad- 
miral Penn, who long served his country with ability and honorable reputa- 
tion as an ofiicer in the English navy. At an early age the son was sent to 
the University of Oxford, but becoming imbued with the principles of a re- 
ligious sect called Quakers, or Friends, he was fined for boldly avowing their 
sentiments, and afterwards expelled from the university, at the age of sixteen. 

As the English government was indebted to his father, he applied for and 
obtained a grant of territory in America, in payment of the debt. In honor 
of Penn's father, the territory thus granted was named Pennsylvania. In the 
year 1681, Penn sent out several ships with emigrants, mosdy Quakers, and 
he gave instructions to his agent that he should govern the little colony in 
harmony with law and religion — that he should gain the good will of the na- 
tives — and that if a city should be commenced as the capital of the province, 
it should not be like the crowded towns of the old world, but should be laid 



THE UNITED STATES. 



205 



out with a garden around each house, so as to form "a green country- 
town." 

Penn dealt justly and kindly with the Indians, and they requited him with 
a reverential love such as they evinced to no other Englishman. The neigh- 
boring colonies waged bloody wars with the Indians who lived around them — 
now inflicting defeats which were almost exterminating — now sustaining hide- 
ous massacres. Penn's Indians were his children and most loyal subjects. 




PENN'S TREATY ^A/^ITH THE INDIANS. 



No drop of Quaker blood was ever shed by Indian hand in the Pennsylvania 
territory. Soon after Penn's arrival he invited the chief men of the Indian 
tribes to a conference. The meeting took place beneath a huge elm tree. 
The pathless forest has long given way to the houses and streets of Philadel- 
phia, but a marble monument points out to strangers the scene of this mem- 
orable interview. Penn, with a few companions, unarmed, and dressed ac- 
cording to the simple fashion of their sect, met the crowd of formidable 



206 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

savages. They met, he assured them, as brothers "on the broad pathway of 
good faith and good will." No advantage was to be taken on either side. 
All was to be " openness and love ; " and Penn meant what he said. Strong 
in the power of truth and kindness, he bent the fierce savages of the Dela- 
ware to his will. They vowed " to live in love with William Penn and his 
children as long as the moon and the sun shall endure." They kept their 
vow. Long years after, they were known to recount to strangers, with deep 
emotion, the words which Penn had spoken to them under the old elm tree 
of Shakamaxon. 

The fame of Penn's settlement went abroad in all lands. Men wearied 
with the vulgar tyranny of kings heard gladly that the reign of freedom and 
tranquillity was established on the banks of the Delaware. An asylum was 
opened " for the good and oppressed of every nation." Of these there was 
no lack. Pennsylvania had nothing to attract such " dissolute persons" as 
had laid the foundations of Virginia. But grave and God-fearingf men from 
all the Protestant countries sought a home where they might live as con- 
science taught them. The new colony grew apace. Its natural advantages 
were tempting. Penn reported it as "a good land, with plentiful springs, the 
air clear and fresh, and an innumerable quantity of wild-fowl and fish — what 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented with." During the first 
year twenty-two vessels arrived, bringing 2,000 persons. In three years 
Philadelphia was a town of 600 houses. It was half a century from its foun- 
dation before New York attained equal dimensions. 

When Penn, after a few years, revisited England, he was able truly to re- 
late that " things went on sweetly with friends in Pennsylvania ; that they in- 
creased finely in outward things and in wisdom." 

The thirteen States which composed the original Union were Virginia, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Delaware, Mary- 
land, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina 
and Georgia. 

Of these the latest born was Georgia. Only fifty years had passed since 
Penn established the Quaker State on the banks of the Delaware. But 
changes greater than centuries have sometimes wrought had taken place. 
The Revolution had vindicated the liberties of the British people. The 
tyrant house of Stuart had been cast out, and with its fall the era of despotic 
government had closed. The real governing power was no longer the king, 
but the Parliament. 

Among the members of Parliament during the rule of Sir Robert Wal- 
pole was one almost unknown to us now, but deserving of honor beyond most 
men of his time. His name was James Oglethorpe. He was a soldier, and 
had fought against the Turks and in the orreat Marlborough wars against 
Louis XIV. In advanced life he became the friend of Samuel Johnson. Dr. 



THE UNITED STATES. 207 

Johnson urged him to write some account of his adventures. "I know no 
one," he said, "whose Hfe would be more interesting: if I were furnished with 
materials I should be very glad to write it." Edmund Burke considered him 
"a more extraordinary person than any he had ever read of" John Wesley 
" blessed God that ever he was born." Oglethorpe attained the great age of 
ninety-six, and died in the year 1785. The year before his death he attended 
the sale of Dr. Johnson's books, and was there met by Samuel Rogers, the 
poet. " Even then," says Rogers, " he was the finest figure of a man you 
ever saw ; but very, very old — the flesh of his face like parchment." 

This kind-hearted man, observing that there were great numbers of poor 
people in England, who could with difficulty obtain a living there and were 
often imprisoned for debts which they could not pay, conceived the project 
of improving their condition by transporting them to America, and giving 
them the lands on which they should settle. 

Without difficulty Oglethorpe found associates to unite with him in his 
benevolent enterprise, and in the year 1732 the King of England gave them 
a grant of the country between the rivers Altamaha and Savannah, which 
they were to hold, not for their own benefit, but, as was expressed in the 
charter, " in trust for the poor." 

In November of the same year Oglethorpe sailed with 120 emigrants, 
mainly selected from the prisons — penniless, but of good repute. He sur- 
veyed the coast of Georgia, and chose a site for the capital of his new State. 
He pitched his tent where Savannah now stands, and at once proceeded to 
mark out the lines of streets and squares. 

Next year the colony was joined by about a hundred German Protestants, 
who were then under persecution for their beliefs. The colonists received 
this addition to their numbers with joy. A place of residence had been 
chosen for them which the devout and thankful strangers named Ebenezer. 
They were charmed with their new abode. The rivers and the hills, they said, 
reminded them of home. They applied themselves with steady industry to 
the cultivation of indigo and silk ; and they prospered. 

The fame of Oglethorpe's enterprise spread over Europe. All struggling 
men, against whom the battle of life went hard, looked to Georgia as a land 
of promise. They were the men who most urgently required to emigrate; 
but they were not always the men best fitted to conquer the difiiculties of the 
immigrant's life. The progress of the colony was slow. The poor persons 
of whom it was originally composed were honest but ineffective, and could 
not in Georgia more than in England find out the way to become self-support- 
ing. Encouragements were given which drew from Germany, from Switzer- 
land, and from the Highlands of Scotland, men of firmer texture of mind — 
better fitted to subdue the wilderness and bring forth its treasures. 



208 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 

Up to the year 1764 the Americans cherished a deep reverence and affec- 
tion for the mother country. They were proud of her great place among the 
nations. They gloried in the splendor of her military achievements ; they 
copied her manners and her fashions. She was in all things their model. 
They always spoke of England as " home." To be an Old England man was 
to be a person of rank and importance among them. They yielded a loving 
obedience to her laws. They were governed, as Benjamin Franklin stated it, 
at the expense of a little pen and ink. When money was asked from their 
assemblies, it was given without grudge. " They were led by a thread " — 
such was their love for the land which eave them birth. 

Ten or twelve years came and went. A marvellous change has passed 
upon the temper of the American people. They have bound themselves by 
great oaths to use no article of English manufacture — to engage in no trans- 
action which can put a shilling into any English pocket. They have formed 
"the inconvenient habit of cartintj" — that is, of tarrine and feathering and 
dragging through the streets such persons as avow friendship for the English 
government. They burn the acts of the English Parliament by the hands of 
the common hangman. They slay the king's soldiers. They refuse every 
amicable proposal. They cast from them forever the king's authority. They 
hand down a dislike to the English name, of which some traces lingered 
among them for generations. 

By what unhallowed magic has this change been wrought so swiftly? By 
what process, in so few years, have 3,000,000 people been taught to abhor the 
country they so loved? 

The ignorance and folly of the English government wrought this evil. 

For many years England had governed her American colonies harshly, 
and in a spirit of undisguised selfishness. America was ruled, not for her 
own good, but for the good of English commerce. She was not allowed to 
export her products except to England. No foreign ship might enter her 
ports. Woollen goods were not allowed to be sent from one colony to an- 
other. At one time the manufacture of hats was forbidden. In a liberal 
mood Parliament removed that prohibition, but decreed that no maker of hats 
should employ any negro workman, or any larger number of apprentices than 
two. Iron-works were forbidden. Up to the latest hour of English rule the 
Bible was not allowed to be printed in America. 

In 1765, the famous " Stamp Act" was made a law. All legal documents 
were to bear a government stamp, costing from three-pence to thirty dollars, 
according to the importance of the transaction. Every newspaper and 
pamphlet must be stamped, and every advertisement must pay a tax. The 
Americans remonstrated. 



THE UNITED STATES. 209 

Benjamin Franklin told the House of Commons that America would never 
submit to the Stamp Act, and that no power on earth could enforce it. The 
Americans made it impossible for government to mistake their sentiments. 
Riots, which swelled from day to day into dimensions more " enormous and 
alarming," burst forth in the New England States. Everywhere the stamp 
distributors were compelled to resign their offices. One unfortunate man was 
led forth to Boston Common, and made to sign his resignation in presence 
of a vast crowd. Another, in desperate health, was visited in his sick-room 
and obliged to pledge that if he lived he would resign. A universal resolu- 
tion was come to that no English goods would be imported till the Stamp 
Act was repealed. The colonists would "eat nothing, drink nothing, wear 
nothing that comes from England " while this great injustice endured. The 
act was to come into force on the ist of November. That day the bells rung 
out funereal peals, and the colonists wore the aspect of men on whom some 
heavy calamity had fallen. But the act never came into force. Not one of 
Lord Grenville's stamps was ever bought or sold in America. Some of the 
stamped paper was burnt by the mob ; the rest was hidden away to save it 
from the same fate. Without stamps, marriages were null ; mercantile trans- 
actions ceased to be binding; suits at law were impossible. Nevertheless, 
the business of human life went on. Men married ; they bought, they sold ; 
they went to law — illegally, because without stamps. But no harm came of it. 

England heard with amazement that America refused to obey the law. 
There were some who demanded that the Stamp Act should be enforced by 
the sword. But it greatly moved the English merchants that America should 
cease to import their goods. William Pitt — not yet Earl of Chatham — de- 
nounced the act, and said he was glad America had resisted. Pitt and the 
merchants trhimphed, and the act was repealed. 

The repeal of the Stamp Act delayed only for a little the fast-coming 
-crisis. A new ministry was formed, with the Earl of Chatham at its head. 
But soon the great earl lay sick and helpless, and the burden of government 
rested on incapable shoulders. Charles Townshend, a clever, captivating, but 
most indiscreet man, became the virtual prime minister. The feeling in the 
public mind had now become more unfavorable to America. Townshend 
proposed to levy a variety of taxes from the Americans. The most famous 
of his taxes was one of three-pence per pound on tea. All his proposals be- 
came law. Several ships were freighted with tea, and sent out to America. 

Cheaper tea was never seen in America ; but it bore upon it the abhorred 
tax which asserted British control over the property of Americans. Will the 
Americans, long bereaved of the accustomed beverage, yield to the tempta- 
tion, and barter their honor for cheap tea? The East India Company never 
doubted it; but the company knew nothing of the temper of the American 

people. The ships arrived at New York and Philadelphia. These cities 
14 



210 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Stood firm. The ships were promptly sent home — their hatches unopened — 
and duly bore their rejected cargoes back to the Thames. 

When the ships destined for Boston showed their tall masts in the bay, 
the citizens ran together to hold council. It was Sabbath, and the men of 
Boston were strict. But here was an exigency, in presence of which all or- 
dinary rules are suspended. The crisis has come at length. If that tea is 
landed it will be sold, it will be used, and American liberty will become a by- 
word upon the earth. 

Samuel Adams was the true king in Boston at that time. He was a man 
in middle life, of cultivated mind and stainless reputation — a powerful speaker 
and writer — a man in whose sagacity and moderation all men trusted. He 
resembled the old Puritans in his stern love of liberty, his reverence for the 
Sabbath, his sincere, if somewhat formal, observance of all religious ordi- 
nances. He was among the first to see that there was no resting-place in 
this struggle short of independence. "We are free," he .said, "and want no 
king." The men of Boston felt the power of his resolute spirit, and man- 
fully followed where Samuel Adams led. 

It was hoped that the agents of the East India Company would have con- 
sented to send the ships home ; but the agents refused. Several days of ex- 
citement and ineffectual negotiation ensued. People flocked in from the 
neighboring towns. The time was spent mainly in public meetings ; the city 
resounded with impassioned discourse. But meanwhile the ships lay peace- 
fully at their moorings, and the tide of patriot talk seemed to flow in vain. 
Other measures were visibly necessary. One day a meeting was held, and 
the excited people continued in hot debate till the shades of evening fell. No 
progress was made. At length Samuel Adams stood up in the dimly lighted 
church, and announced, "This meeting can do nothing- more to save thecoun- 
try." With a stern shout the meeting broke up. Fifty men disguised as In- 
dians hurried down to the wharf, each man with a hatchet in his hand. The 
crowd followed. The ships were boarded ; the chests of tea were brought on 
deck, broken open and flung into the bay. The approving citizens looked on 
in silence. It was felt by all that the step was grave and eventful in the high- 
est degree. So still was the crowd that no sound was heard but the stroke 
of the hatchet and the splash of the shattered chests as they fell into the sea. 
All questions about the disposal of those cargoes of tea, at all events, are now 
solved. 

This is what America has done ; it is for England to make the next move. 
Lord North was now at the head of the British government. It was his lord- 
ship's belief that the troubles in America sprung from a small number of am- 
bitious persons, and could easily, by proper firmness, be suppressed. " The 
Americans will be lions while we are lambs," said General Gage. The king 
believed this, and Lord North believed it. In this deep ignorance he pro- 



THE UNITED STATES. 



211 



ceeded to deal with the great emergency. He closed Boston as a port for the 
landing and shipping of goods. He imposed a fine to indemnify the East 
India Company for their lost teas. He withdrew the charter of Massachu- 
setts. He authorized the governor to send political offenders to England for 
trial. Great voices were raised against these severities. Lord Chatham, old 
in constitution now, if not in years, and near the close of his career, pleaded 
for measures of conciliation. Edmund Burke justified the resistance of the 
Americans. Their opposition was fruitless. All Lord North's measures of 
repression became law ; and General Gage, with an additional force of soldiers, 
was sent to Boston to carry them into effect. 

In September, i 774, the first Continental Congress met at Philadelphia. 
Fifty-three of the best and ablest men in the country were there ; men deeply 
versed in English law, and who 
knew well that king and Par- 
liament were violating the con- 
stitution which they were sworn 
to maintain. Awed by a feeling 
of the tremendous results which 
depended upon their conduct, a 
long and deep silence fell on all 
the members of the assembly. 
It was broken by Patrick Henry, 
of Virginia — the greatest orator 
of his day, and perhaps the great- 
est that America has yet produced 
— who recited the wrongs of the 
colonies with magnificent elo- 
quence, and yet with strict ad- 
herence to the truth. Patrick 
Henry was born in the year 1736, 
and died in 1799. 

He was a man of limited edu- 
cation and in early years displayed 
few indications of his future great- 
ness. He was exceedingly fond 
of fishing and hunting, and of so- 
cial pleasures, all of which were 
allowed to interfere with his duties. He married at eighteen, failed twice in 
business, once in an attempt at farming, and finally, when twenty-four years of 
age, entered the profession of law after six weeks' study of the subject. 

Henry was a man of high moral courage, and the instinctive champion of 
the wronged and the oppressed. The opening scenes of the Revolution fired 




212 



THE GOLDEN TKEASURY. 



his patriotic soul ; evidently the time and purj^ose for which he had been born 
had arrived. His speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses electrified 
the country, and gained him the .reputation, at the age of twenty-nine, of being 
"the greatest orator and political thinker of a land abounding with public 
speakers and statesmen." From this time forth he was prominent in the 
political conventions and congresses of the colonies, and, in 1776, he was elec- 
ted the first republican governor of the State of Virginia. He held this office 
until 1779, when, being no longer eligible, he returned to the legislature. At 
the close of the war he was again chosen governor, and served until 1786, 
when he resigned. In 1 794, he retired from the law, and removed to his estate. 
After this he declined several honorable positions in public life, but was finally 
persuaded by Washington and others to become a candidate for the Virginia 




LEXINGTON. 



senate, in 1799, in order to oppose certain measures there. He was easily 
elected, but death interposed before he could take his seat. 

The colonists endeavored by every peaceable means in their power to have 
their wronsfs redressed ; but as Britain showed no signs of relenting in her 
treatment of them, they then settled down to the conviction that they must 
either fight for their liberty, or forego it. They at once prepared themselves 
for the contest. 

General Gage had learned that considerable stores of ammunition were 
collected at the village of Concord, eighteen miles from Boston. He would 
seize them in the king's name. Late one April night 800 soldiers set out on 
this errand. In the early morning they reached Lexington where a body of 
militia awaited them. The patriot volunteers were ordered to disperse, there 



THE UNITED STATES. 213 

being only about seventy of them altogether. Firing ensued, by whom first is 
not known ; but eighteen of the seventy lay dead or wounded on the village 
green, whilst the rest fled. The British pushed on to Concord, and destroyed 
all the military stores they could find. Their march homeward was mainly on 
a road cut through dense woods. The people of the surrounding country had 
been gathering in the meanwhile, and now hung upon their flanks and rear. 
From the woods throughout the whole line of that return march came shot 
thick and heavy. It was sunset ere the soldiers, half dead with fatigue, got 
home to Boston. This fatal e.xpedition had cost them nearly three hundred 
men. The blood shed at Le.xington had been swiftly and deeply avenged. 

The battle of Bunker Hill followed soon after. Two thousand British 
soldiers charged up the hill against the American intrenchments, which they 
carried, after having been twice repulsed, but with a loss of nearly eleven hun- 
dred men, whilst the American loss was less than five hundred. 

The time was now ripe for the consideration by Congress of the great 
question of independence. It was a grave and most eventful step, but it could 
no longer be shunned. On the 7th of June, 1776, a resolution was introduced 
declaring " That the United Colonies are and oueht to be free and inde- 
pendent;" and on the 4th of July the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted, with the unanimous concurrence of all the States. 

Our illustrious poet Bryant vividly depicts the spirit which animated the 
patriots at this time, in his poem entitled, " Seventy-Six." 

" What heroes from tlie w.oodland sprung, 

When through the fresh-awakened land, 
The thrilHng.cry of freedom rung 
And to the work of warfare strung 

The yeoman's iron hand ! 

" Hills flung the cry to hills around. 

And ocean-mart replied to mart. 
And streams, whose springs were }-et unfound. 
Pealed far away the startling sound 

Into the forest's heart. 

" Then marched the brave from rocky steep. 

From mountain-river swift and cold ; * 

The borders of the stormy deep. 

The vales where gathered waters sleep, 
Sent up the strong and bold ; 

" As if the very earth again 

Grew quick with God's creating breath. 
And, from the sods of grove and glen, 
Rose ranks of lion-hearted men 

To battle to the death. 



214 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

" The wife whose babe first smiled that day, 
The fair fond bride of yester-eve, 
And aged sire and matron gray, 
Saw the loved warriors haste away, 
And deemed it sin to grieve. 

"Already had the strife begun; 

Already blood on Concord's plain, 
Along the springing grass had run. 
And blood had flowed at Lexington, 
Like brooks of April rain. 

"That death-stain on the vernal sward 
Hallowed to freedom all the shore ; 
In fragments fell the yoke abhorred — 
The footsteps of a foreign lord 
. Profaned the soil no more." 

For some time after the Declaration of Independence, the English were 
generally victorious in the conflicts of the revolution. But in the winter fol- 
lowing, the tide of victory turned in favor of Washington and his compatriots. 
On the day after Christmas he gained the battle of Trenton ; and on the 3d 
of January, 1777, he defeated the British at Princeton. 

In the month of June, a British army set out from Canada to conquer the 
northern parts of the revolted territory. General Burgoyne was in command. 
In July he reached Ticonderoga, which he captured without difficulty. Being 
in want of provisions, Burgoyne sent Colonel Baum, with 500 men, to seize a 
quantity of stores which the Americans had collected at Bennington. They 
were met by Colonel John Stark, at the head of the New Hampshire militia, 
and totally defeated. The British loss was about 800 ; that of the Americans 
fifty-four. Stark's speech to his men before the battle is said to have been : 
" There they are, boys ; we must beat them to-day, or this night Molly Stark's 
a widow." The record of this remarkable victory inspired the muse of Bryant, 
who thereupon produced a poem which cannot be too widely known. 

" The Battle of Bennington. 

" On this fair valley's grassy breast 
The calm, sweet rays of summer rest. 
And dove-like peace divinely broods 
On its smooth lawns and solemn woods. 

" A century since, in flame and smoke. 
The storm of battle o'er it broke; 
And ere the invader turned and fled. 
These pleasant fields were strown with dead. 




(215) 



216 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

" Stark, quick to act and bold to dare, 
And Warner's mountain band, were there; 
And Allen, who had flung the pen 
Aside to lead the Berkshire men. 

" With fiery onset — blow on blow — 
They rushed upon the embattled foe, 
And swept his squadrons from the vale, 
Like leaves before the autumn gale. 

" Oh ! never may the purple stain 
Of combat blot these fields again, 
Nor this fair valley ever cease 
To wear the placid smile of peace. 

" But we, beside this battle-field, 
Will plight the vow that ere we yield 
The right for which our fathers bled, 
Our blood shall steep the ground we tread. 

"And men shall hold the memory dear 
Of those who fought for freedom here, 
And guard the heritage they won 
While these green hillsides feel the sun." 

This defeat was the forerunner of still greater disasters to Burgoyne. In 
his march southward he found himself at Saratoga destitute of provisions,, 
and surrounded by the enemy. Night and day a circle of fire encompassed 
them. There was but one thing to do, and it was clone. The British army 
surrendered. Nearly six thousand men, in sorrow and in shame, laid down 
their arms. 

The summer of 1788 was signalized by a terrible massacre of old men, 
women and children in the valley of Wyoming, on the Susquehanna, by a 
combined force of British and Seneca Indians. All the strong men were ab- 
sent in the army, while their wives tilled the fields. The forts in which they 
had found refuge on the enemy's approach, were taken and burnt. Three 
hundred old men and boys fought valiantly until they were surrounded and 
slain. The British leaders could not, if they would, restrain their savage 
allies; every dwelling was burnt, and the beautiful valley became a solitude. 

The surrender of Burgoyne brought an important ally to the American 
side ; France offered to come to her aid. A treaty was signed by which 
France and America ensrao^ed to make common cause against England. Soon 
afterwards Spain joined France and America in the league, and declared 
war against England. 

The fleets of France and Spain appeared in the English Channel, and 
England had to face the perils of an invasion. But the black cloud passed 



THE UNITED STATES. 



217 



harmlessly away. The invading admirals quarrelled. One of them wished 
to land at once ; the other wished first to dispose of the English fleet. They 
could not agree upon a course, and therefore they sailed away home, each to 
his own country, having effected nothing. 

During the later years of the war the English kept possession of the 
Southern States. When the last campaign opened, Lord Cornwallis, with a 
strono- force, represented British authority in the South, and did all that he 
found possible for the suppression of the patriots. He marched into Virginia 
and took post at Yorktown. 




ON THE NA'AR-PATH. 



One event of some interest, although of little importance in its results, 
should not be passed over here. We allude to the treason of Arnold. 

This man, a general in the American army, having obtained the command 
of the fortress of West Point, on the Hudson, privately engaged to deliver 
it up to the British General Clinton, for the sum of ^10,000 sterling, and a 
commission as brigadier-general in the British army. 

By the fortunate arrest of a Major Andre, whom Clinton had sent to con- 
fer with Arnold, the project was defeated. Andre was hung as a spy, while 
Arnold fled to the British camp, where he received the stipulated reward of 



218 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

his treason. But even the British themselves scorned the traitor, and the 
world now execrates his name and memory. 

About midsummer (1781), the joyous news reached Washington that a 
powerful French Heet, with an army on board, was about to sail for America. 
With this reinforcement, Washington had it in his power to deliver a blow 
which would break the strength of the enemy and hasten the close of the 
war. The French fleet sailed for the Chesapeake, and Washington decided 
in consequence that his attack should be made on Lord Cornwallis. With all 
possible secrecy and speed the American troops were moved southward to 
Virginia. They were joined by the French, and they stood before Yorktown 
a force 1 2,000 strong. 

The siege of Yorktown was pushed on with extraordinary vehemence. 
The English made a stout defence, and strove by desperate sallies to drive the 
assailants from their works. But in a few days the defences of Yorktown 
lay in utter ruin, beaten to the ground by the powerful artillery of the Ameri- 
cans. The English guns were silenced ; the English shipping was fired by 
red-hot shot from the French batteries. Ammunition began to grow scarce. 
The place could not be held much longer. Lord Cornwallis must either 
force his way out and escape to the North, or surrender. One night he be- 
gan to embark his men in order to cross the York river and set out on his 
desperate march to New York ; but a violent storm arose and scattered his 
boats. The men who had embarked got back with difficulty, under fire from 
the American batteries. All hope was now at .an end. In about a fortnight 
from the opening of the siege, the British army, 8,000 strong, laid down its 
arms. 

The final treaty of peace between the British and Americans was made in 
1783. Great Britain acknowledged the United States to be free and inde- 
pendent, with Canada as a boundary on the north, the Mississippi river on 
the west, and Florida, extending west to the Mississippi, on the south. 

Having now arrived at our beginning as a nation, we may well pause to 
take a glance at the most prominent characters to whom our country is so 
greatly indebted for its independent existence. There are, indeed, many 
names worthy of all remembrance, which the space at our command will 
hardly allow us even to mention. Still the reader is aware that our purpose 
is not to enter into the minute details of historical fact, for there are innumer- 
able works which are devoted to that object alone. Our purpose is to give a 
running summary of the political, social, artistic, literary, and scientific prog- 
ress of our country — to show how it came to be an independent nation, and 
what it has achieved since then. And as 

" The proper study of mankind is man," 

brief sketches of our most prominent men in any branch of human industry 



THE UNITED STATES. 



219 




•will be given, as well as of those upon whom the nation has bestowed the 
o-ift of its hiehest office. The mind of the reader will thus not be confined 
to one narrow view of what is involved in the history of the country. 

George Washington naturally comes first in our record of great names. 
He was born February 22d, 1732, and died December 14th, 1799. George's 
father died when he was eleven years old, so that his training devolved upon 
his mother, who was a woman of very noble character; and, as events proved, 
fully equal to the task. 

Washington was a good math- 



ematician, and at the age of 
sixteen had thoroughly fitted 
himself as a practical surveyor. 
One of Washington's early 
friends was Lord Fairfax, an ec- 
centric Englishman, who owned 
an immense estate in Virginia. 
He employed Washington to 
survey this land ; and while en- 
gaeed in this work, cut off from 
civilization and compelled to 
undergo numerous hardships, he 
learned many lessons that after- 
ward proved useful to him. 

When Governor Dinwiddle arrived in Virginia he appointed Washington, 
with the rank of major, over one of the four military districts into which he 
divided the colony. It was at this time, and when only twenty-one years of 
age, that Washington was despatched on his mission to Venango. The sound- 
ness of his judgment was shown on that expedition, and disregard of his ad- 
vice was followed by disaster to Braddock's expedition. 

When called upon to take command of the army of the United States, he 
replied with his usual modesty : "Though I am truly sensible of the high honor 
done me in this appointment, yet I feel great distress from a consciousness that 
my abilities and military experience may not be equal to the extensive and im- 
portant trust." His generosity and devoted patriotism are also shown in 
another passage of this same reply: "As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure 
Congress that as no pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to accept 
the arduous employment at the expense of my domestic ease and happiness, 
I do not wish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my 
expenses. Those, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that is all I desire." 
At this time Washington was forty-three years old. He had married Mrs. 
Martha Custis, a wealthy young widow, in 1759, and being heir himself to 
large estates, he had devoted himself to agriculture. 



GEORGE \A?ASHINGTON. 



220 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



In appearance Washington was of commanding presence. He was six 
feet and two inches tall, broad-shouldered and muscular. His face was un- 
usually calm and dignified in expression, and his manner was formal. In 
private, however, he was gracious, and even genial, especially with the young. 

While taking his usual ride over the plantation, during the morning of the 
1 2th of December, 1790, he was caught in a cold storm of rain and sleet. 
Returning home, after two or three hours' exposure to this weather, he sat 
down to dine without changing his clothes. The second day following he was 
attacked with "acute laryngitis," a disease of the throat not then understood. 




MT. VERNON. 



and died within twenty-four hours. Europe vied with America in mourning 
his loss and eulogizing his name. General Henry Lee, of Virginia, at the re- 
quest of Congress, pronounced his funeral oration, using the memorable 
words, "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.'^ 
Bryant thus writes of the 22d of February : 

" Pale is the February sky, 

And brief the mid-day's sunny hours; 
The wind-swept forest seems to sigh 

For the sweet time of leaves and flowers. 



THE UNITED STATES. 221 

" Yet has no month a prouder day, 

Not even when the summer broods 
O'er meadows in their fresh array, 
Or autumn tints tlie glowing woods. 

" For this chill season now again 

Brings in its annual round the morn « 

When, greatest of the sons of men, 
Our glorious Washington was born." 

LITERATURE AND GENERAL PROGRESS IN THE COLONIAL 

PERIOD. 

It may be believed that the first settlers in America found enough to do in 
subduing the wilderness and devising the laws under which their children 
were to live, without writing books. But so anxious were they to be remem- 
bered and understood in England, and to be reinforced by new parties of emi- 
grants ; so full of wonder and delight in the new world that was thrown open 
to them, and so desirous that their children should not lack the advantages 
that they would have enjoyed at home, that a mass of literature does in fact 
date from the very earliest years of the colonies. 

The first book written in America was Captain John Smith's " True Re- 
lation of Virginia," which he sent home in 1608. A few months later he des- 
patched the London Company a report of the Jamestown colony, with a map 
of the Chesapeake bay and its tributary rivers, and a very lively description 
of the surrounding country. 

Besides many other descriptive works, Virginia made one contribution to 
elegant letters ; for George Sandys, treasurer of the colony, a. d. 1621-1625, 
beguiled the loneliness of his absence from polished society and the horror 
attending the Indian massacre by translating Ovid into English verse. Not 
only in description and poetry, however, did the colonial authors prove their 
ability, but in philosophy and science as well. 

Among the writers of the later colonial period the greatest, perhaps, was 
Jonathan Edwards (born 1703, died 1758), whose " Essay on the Freedom of 
the Will " revealed to the world the most acute and original mind which 
America has produced. It was written at the little village of Stockbridge, 
Massachusetts, when he was a missionary to the Indians. But the mind which 
most perfectly represented and most strongly influenced the character of 
American institutions was that of Benjamin Franklin (born 1706, died 1790)^ 
the printer-boy of Boston, the self-taught sage of Philadelphia, the represen- 
tative of the colonies at London, the ambassador of the United States at Paris, 
whose plain, good sense, genial humor, and honest self-respect made him the 
favorite of all ranks and classes. His writings fill ten octavo volumes. A 
great statesman spoke of him as being the greatest diplomatist of the eigh- 
teenth century. 



222 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Among his great services to his country was his organization of Its postal 
service as early as 1754. "Every penny stamp is a monument to Franklin." 
His simple experiment with the kite, proving lightning and thunder to be 
caused by electric currents, and his subsequent invention of the lightning-rod, 
gave him a high place among scientific men. 

From the beginning the colonies contained many noted students of nat- 
ural science. The soils, minerals, plants and animals of the new continent 
were all objects of keen research. Linnaeus, the noted Swedish naturalist, 
declared John Bartram, the Quaker gardener of Philadelphia, to be the 
"greatest natural botanist in the world." Virginia and the more southerly 
colonies had several botanists of European fame. But the scientific reputa- 
tion of America was established when Franklin, in 1744, drew about him 
other gentlemen of kindred tastes and formed the American Philosophical 
Society. It was an important bond of union among the best men in all the 
colonies. 

THE THIRTEEN STATES BECOME A NATION. 

Washington saw from the beginning that his country was without a govern- 
ment. Congress was a mere name. There were still thirteen sovereign 
States — in league for the moment, but liable to be placed at variance by the 
differences which time would surely bring. Washington was satisfied that 
without a central government they could never be powerful or respected. 
Such a government, indeed, was necessary in order even to their existence. 
European powers would, in its absence, introduce dissension among them. 
Men's minds would revert to that form of government with which they were 
familiar. Some ambitious statesman or soldier would make himself king, and 
the great experiment, based upon the equality of rights, would prove an igno- 
minious failure. 

Hamilton proposed that a convention of delegates from the several States 
should be held, in order to decide upon a form of government. The conven- 
tion met at Philadelphia, in May, 1787. Fifty-five men composed this mem- 
orable council. Among them were the wisest men of whom America, or per- 
haps any other country, could boast. Washington himself presided. Benjamin 
Franklin brought to this — his latest and his greatest task — the ripe experience 
of eighty-two years. New York sent Hamilton — regarding whom Prince 
Talleyrand said, long afterward, that he had known nearly all the leading men 
of his time, but he had never known one, on the whole, equal to Hamilton. 
With these came many others who§e names are held in enduring honor. 
Since the meeting of that first Congress, which pointed the way to inde- 
pendence, America had seen no such assembly. 

Alexander Hamilton (born 1757, died 1804), born in the West Indies, was 
one of the most remarkable characters of the Revolution. His mother died 



THE UNITED STATES. 223 

when he was a child, and his father being in destitute circumstances Hamilton 
was taken charge of by his mother's relatives. They placed him in a com- 
mercial house when twelve years of age, and, although the life was very dis- 
tasteful to him, he applied himself faithfully to the discharge of his duties. A 
newspaper article, written when he was but fifteen years old, was so remark- 
able that his friends determined to crive him the benefit of a crood education, 
and he was accordingly sent to New York, where he graduated at King's Col- 
lege. He became much interested in politics, and a speech made by him at a 
public meeting, 1774, attracted general attention to him. Soon after this he 
wrote a number of political pamphlets that at once gave him a high position in 
the community. When nineteen years old he obtained a commission as cap- 
tain of artillery, and in this capacity he first attracted the attention of Wash- 
ington, to whom he finally became aide-de-catnp. So implicit was Washington's 
confidence in this stripling of twenty that he intrusted to him the sole man- 
agement of his most delicate correspondence with the British commanders and 
others. After the war he studied law, in which profession he at once rose to 
eminence, but politics continued to absorb much of his time. He was a mem- 
ber of the constitutional convention, and wrote the majority of a series of 
papers called " The Federalist," which appeared in a New York paper, in 
defence of the Constitution, and no doubt had much weight in causing its 
adoption by the several States. Party feeling now ran very high, and Hamil- 
ton's great ability and untiring energy won him many strong friends among 
the Federalists, and many bitter enemies in the opposite party. As Washing- 
ton's first secretary of -the treasury, Hamilton's career was brilliant and suc- 
cessful, and he readily refuted all the charges brought against him for 
mismanagement and dishonesty by the Democrats. A split occurring in the 
Federalist party, Hamilton, by his opposition, gave deep offence to Aaron 
Burr, who finally challenged him to a duel and shot him. 

Hamilton is described as beine under the medium height and slioht in 
figure. His complexion was fair and delicate, and his manners were most 
engaging. 

The first step to be taken under the new Constitution was to elect a Pres- 
ident. There was but one man who was thought of for this untried ofifice. 
George Washington was unanimously chosen. Congress was summoned to 
meet in New York on the 4th of March ; but the members had to travel far 
on foot, or on horseback. Roads were bad, bridges were few ; streams, in 
that spring-time were swollen. It was some weeks after the appointed time be- 
fore business could be commenced. 

That Congress had difficult work to do, and it was done patiently, with 
much plain sense and honesty. As yet there was no revenue, while every- 
where there was debt. The general government had debt, and each of the 
States had debt. There was the foreign debt — due to France, Holland and 



224 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Spain. There was the army debt — for arrears of pay and pensions. There 
was the debt of the five great departments — for supplies obtained during the 
war. There was a vast issue of paper-money to be redeemed. There were 
huge arrears of interest. And, on the other hand, there was no provision 
whatever for these enormous obHgations. 

Washington, with a sigh, asked a friend, "What is to be done about this 
heavy debt?" "There is but one man in America can tell you," said his 
friend, "and that is Alexander Hamilton." Washington made Hamilton 
secretary of the treasury. The success of his financial measures was imme- 
diate and complete. " He smote the rock of the national resources," said 
Daniel Webster, " and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He 
touched the dead corpse of the public credit and it sprung upon its feet." All 




THE WHITE HOUSE, HOME OF THE PRESIDENTS. 

the war debts of the States were assumed by the general government. Effi- 
cient provision was made for the regular payment of interest, and for a sink- 
ing fund to liquidate the principal. Duties were imposed on shipping, on 
goods imported from abroad, and on spirits manufactured at home. The 
vigor of the government inspired public confidence, and commerce began to 
revive. In a few years the American flag was seen on every sea. The 
simple manufactures of the country resumed their long interrupted activity. 
A national bank was established. Courts were set up, and judges were ap- 
pointed. The salaries of the President and the great functionaries were set- 
tled. A home was chosen for the greneral government on the banks of the 
Potomac — where the capital of the Union was to supplant the litde wooden 
village — remote from the agitations which arise in the great centres of popu- 



THE UNITED STATES. 



225 



lation. Innumerable details connected with the establishment of a new orov- 
ernment were discussed and fixed. Novel as the circumstances were, little 
of the work then done has required to be undone. Succeeding generations 
of Americans have approved the wisdom of their early legislators, and con- 
tinue unaltered the arrangements which were framed at the outset of the na- 
tional existence. 

Washington entered on the duties of his ofifice on the 30th of April, 1789. 
The people, at this time had formed themselves into two political parties. 
Those who felt that the new Federal government was absolutely necessary, 
took the name of Federalists, and supported the new constitution. Those 
who liked the old State government better, took the name of Anti-Federalists, 
and opposed the new constitution. Most of the leading men were Federal- 
ists at this time, and the Anti-Federalists had but two great leaders, Samuel 
Adams and Patrick Henry. Subsequendy, in 1792, the Anti-Federalists took 
the name of Republican party (similar to the present Democratic party). 
Jefferson and Randolph became the Republican leaders, and Hamilton and 
Knox the Federalist leaders. Washington, although he tried to be impartial, 
was really a Federalist. 

At the second Presidential election, in 1 792, all the electors again voted 
for Washington, and John Adams, who was a Federalist, was re-elected Vice- 
President. In this year Kentucky became a State. In 1796, Tennessee was 
admitted into the Union as a State, being the third State that was formed dur- 
ing Washington's administration. He declined to be a candidate for a third 
term of office. 

Washington was President 
during the first eight years of the 
constitution. He survived his 
withdrawal from public life only- 
three years, dying, after a few 
hours' illness, m the sixty-eighth 
year of his age. To this day 
there is an affectionate watch- 
fulness for opportunities to ex- 
press the honor in which his 
name is held. To this day the 
steamers which ply upon the 
Potomac strike mournful notes 
upon the bell as they sweep 
past Mount Vernon, where 
Washington had spent the happiest days of his life, and where he died. 

John Adams, of Massachusetts, became President of the United States in 
1797, and Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, having received only three votes less 

15 




JOHN ADAMS. 



226 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



from the electoral college, became Vice-President. These two great men were 
leaders of opposite parties, and during their four years of office the country 
was disturbed by a violent conflict of opinions. The inconvenience of such a 
division of sentiment in the administration led, a few years later, to a change 
in the mode of election — a distinct ballot being held for the Vice-President, 
who has ever since been of the same political party with his chief 

John Adams was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in October, 1735. He 
was a graduate of Harvard College in the class of 1755, and was*admitted to 
the bar three years later. In 1 764 he was married. He was an active and in- 
fluential member of both the first and second Continental Congresses, and by 
his energy and eloquence did more, perhaps, than any other man to crystallize 
the American sentiment in favor of independence. 

Many of the acts of President Adams were violently denounced by his 
partisan opponents, and the press was very bitter in its criticism ; but the 
sober judgment of later years has approved most of his public measures. 
He and Jefferson became widely alienated for a time ; but before their death, 
which by a singular coincidence occurred on the same day — the fiftieth anni- 
versary of the Declaration of Independence — a happy reconciliation had taken 
place. 

Difficulties with France filled almost all Adams' administration. The 
French government turned the American minister out of the country, and 

encouraged their naval officers to 
capture and sell American vessels 
and cargoes. Special ministers 
were sent by President Adams to 
remonstrate, but the French rulers 
demanded a large sum of money 
as a bribe for peace. The Ameri- 
can ministers replied that they 
would spend " millions for de- 
fence, not one cent for tribute ; " 
and the American people backed 
them and prepared for war. 

Congress increased the navy, 
and ordered it to capture French 
vessels. A number of French 
privateers were captured, when Napoleon, who had overturned the former 
French government, offered fair terms of peace to the United States, and 
they were accepted. 

In the year 1800, the seat of government was removed from Philadelphia 
to the new city of Washington, then a struggling, half-built village, with a few 
public buildings. 




THOMAS JEFFERSON 



THE UNITED STATES. 227 

In the year 1800, parties were so evenly balanced that no President could 
be chosen by the electors. By a provision of the constitution the choice, 
therefore, devolved upon the House of Representatives. After a close bal- 
lot Thomas Jefferson was declared to be President-elect, and Aaron Burr, of 
New York, Vice-President. 

Jefferson was one of the ablest men that our country has produced. 
It was Jefferson who wrote the celebrated Declaration of Independence. To 
him we are indebted for the present convenient denominations of Federal 
money, such as cents, dimes, dollars, etc., in place of the old English system 
of pounds, shillings and pence. 

During his administration American commerce increased enormously, for 
nearly all Europe was now at war, and it was not safe to send goods in Euro- 
pean vessels, which were liable to capture by their enemies. Money came in 
rapidly to the government of the United States. Ohio was admitted in the 
year 1S02. 

Previous to the year 1803, the territory of the United States extended 
west only to the Mississippi river — all the region beyond, then called Lou- 
isiana, being owned by Spain. This latter power, however, ceded the country 
to France in the year 1800, and in the year 1803 the United States purchased 
it from France, for ^15,000,000. Thus the territory of the United States 
was extended west to the Pacific ocean. Thomas Jefferson was born at Shad- 
well, Virginia, 1743, and died at Monticello, 1826. 

Aaron Burr was arrested and tried for treason in 1807. He was, however, 
acquitted, since he had not actually borne arms against the United States, 
although he had intended to set up a government of his own in the Missis- 
sippi valley. The year 1807 is memorable for the earliest success of steam 
navigation. Several ingenious men had been experimenting on the application 
of Watt's invention to modes of travel; but to Robert Fulton, a native of 
Pennsylvania, is due the credit of having persevered until all obstacles were 
overcome. He was liberally aided by Chancellor Livingston of New York. 
His first boat, the Clermont, ascended the Hudson from New York to 
Albany in 1807. Five years later he built at Pittsburgh the first Mississippi 
steamer, which, descending the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, reached New Or- 
leans in December, 181 2. 

Robert Fulton (born 1765, died 1815) was in his earlier years more of 
an artist than a mechanic, and he went to London to perfect himself in por- 
trait painting under the famous Benjamin West. While there he met Earl 
Stanhope, James Watt, and others engaged in finding practical uses for the 
recently invented steam-engine, and his mind was directed to the solution of 
the same problem. His first application of steam-power for propelling boats 
was on the Seine, in 1803, but the experiment was not very successful. After 
the success of the Clermont, Fulton's reputation was world-wide. He built 



228 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




JAMES MADISON. 



many river steam-boats, and constructed the first United States steam war- 
vessel, named " Fulton the First." Among his inventions were an improve- 
ment in canal-locks, a submarine torpedo, and machines for marble-sawing, 
flax-spinning and rope-making. 

Jefferson, having followed the example of Washington in declining a third 
term of office, was succeeded by James Madison, of Virginia, who was inaugu- 
rated March 4th, 1 809. George 



Clinton, of New York, was re- 
elected as Vice-President. The 
same principles continued to 
control the government, and 
the same harmony was visible 
in the cabinet. 

During many years Eng- 
land had been forcibly taking 
, seamen from our vessels, and 
compelling them to serve in 
her navy, under the pretence 
that they were natives of Eng- 
land, and were therefore still 
British subjects. After many 
years of suffering and remonstrance, the United States finally declared war 
against Great Britain, in the month of June, 181 2. The war ended with the 
defeat of the British at New Orleans, 181 5. 

James Madison (born 1751, died 1836) was born at King George, Virginia, 
of Eng-lish descent. He had unusual educational advantages from his earliest 
years and, after graduating at Princeton, when twenty years of age, he pur- 
sued an extensive course of study, embracing law, theology, philosophy, and 
general literature. At this period of his life he permanently impaired his 
bodily vigor by over-study, and by allowing himself only three or four hours' 
sleep each day. He interested himself at once in politics, and in 1776 was 
elected a member of the Virginia convention. On the return of Jefferson 
from France, Madison was offered that mission, but declined it. He also 
refused the position of secretary of state when Jefferson vacated it, feeling 
that he would create a discord in Washington's cabinet. At the time of the 
Constituent Convention he was an ardent Federalist, but later changed his 
views, and was before long recognized as the leader of the Democratic party. 
James Monroe, of Virginia, the fifth President of the United States, had a 
happy and popular administration. He was inaugurated in i8r7. The 
country speedily recovered from the disasters occasioned by the war; the 
fame of its rich, unoccupied lands drew a tide of immigrants from Europe, 
whose labor helped to develop the natural wealth of the country, and, by 



THE UNITED STATES. 



229 



making roads, bridges and canals to supply outlets for its productions. 
A ten years' revolution had now resulted in the separation of most of the 
Spanish colonies from their mother-country. In recognizing Mexico and five 
South American republics as independent states, President Monroe announced 
the principle of his foreign policy : " The American continents, by the free and 
independent position which they have assumed and maintained, are not to be 
considered as subject to future colonization by any foreign power." "Friend- 
ship with all, entangling alliances with none," has been the spirit of interna- 
tional relations founded upon the " Monroe Doctrine." 

In 1824, the Marquis Lafayette, now an old man, came to see once more, 
before he died, the country he had helped to save, and took part with wonder 
in the national rejoicing. The poor colonists, ior whose liberties he had 
fought, had already become a powerful and wealthy nation. Everywhere 
there had been expansion. Everywhere there were comfort and abundance. 
Everywhere there were boundless faith in the future and a vehement, unrest- 
ing energy, which would surely compel the fulfilment of any expectations, 
however vast. 

During his administration, upon the application of Missour-i for leave to 
form a State constitution, the important question arose in Congress whether 
any more slave-States should be admitted. After long discussion it was sup- 
posed to be setded by the Missouri Compromise, which admitted that State 
with its slaves, but prohibited the extension of slavery into any Territory of 
the United States north of 36° 30' 
north latitude. 

Henry Clay, of Kentucky, was 
the chief advocate of the compro- 
mise, and he used all his eloquence 
in calming the angry passions 
which the discussion had excited, 
and in promoting peace and 
brotherly confidence. 

The first ocean steamer crossed 
the Atlantic, from Savannah to Liv- 
erpool, in 1 81 9. The same year a 
treaty was made by which Spain 
ceded Florida, of which she had 
again obtained possession, to the United States, the latter undertaking to pay 
$5,000,000, due from the former power to American citizens. Florida became 
a Territory under the control of Congress, and the President appointed General 
Jackson to be its governor. 

James Monroe (born 1758, died 1831) was a Virginian by birth, and was 

During- the Revolution he fougfht as 




JAMES MONROE. 



educated at William and Mary College. 



230 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



a subordinate officer at Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth, 
and after the war took a prominent part in politics, both in the Virginia 
assembly and in Congress. He died in New York City, July 4th, 1831, and 
was buried there ; but in 1858 his remains were removed in state to Richmond, 
Virginia, and there re-interred in the Hollywood cemetery. 

Henry Clay (born 1777, died 1852) was born near Richmond, Virginia. His 
father, a Baptist preacher, died when Henry was five years old. His mother 
married a second time, and removed to Kentucky, leaving Henry at work as 
clerk in a retail store in Richmond. He soon abandoned this position, how- 
ever, and became a copyist in a law office. Licensed as a lawyer in 1797, he 
removed to Lexington, Kentucky, and soon established a flourishing practice 
through his remarkable power of influencing juries. Clay retired from public 
life in 1842, but in 1848 he was again sent to the Senate, where he struggled 
hard to avert the great battle on the slavery question. Unfortunately his 
health gave way, and in 185 1 he was compelled to retire to private life, and in 
the following year, on the 29th of July, he died. Congress adjourned on the 
news of his death, and the following day eulogies were delivered in both 
Senate and House. New York and the chief cities of Kentucky honored the 
day of his funeral. 

John Quincy Adams was inaugurated in the year 1825, and John C. Calhoun, 

of South Carolina, became Vice- 
President. In internal affairs this 
administration was marked by an 
uncommon prosperity. The im- 
portant event was the introduction 
of the first railroads. 

John Quincy Adams was born 
at Braintree, Massachusetts, July, 
1 767. As a boy he was very pre- 
cocious, and attracted attention 
wherever he went for his vigor of 
mind and body. In the presidential 
election of 1824 the three candi- 
dates besides John Quincy Adams 
were Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, 
and William H. Crawford — all four belonging to the same political party. 
Jackson received ninety-nine electoral votes, Adams eighty-four, Crawford 
forty-one, and Clay thirty-seven. Henry Clay threw his influence in favor of 
Adams, which secured his election. The friends of the other two defeated 
candidates formed a coalition against the new President, which made his office 
very uncomfortable, and insured his defeat for a second term. He entered 
Congress in 1831, and ably represented his district for seventeen years, until 




JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



231 



Stricken with death on the floor of the House of Representatives, February 
• 21 St, 1848. 

John Caldwell Calhoun (born 1782, died 1850). This great statesman, 
champion of southern rights and opinions, was born in Abbeville district, 
South Carolina. His ancestors on both sides were Irish Presbyterians. In 
youth he was very studious, and made 
the best use of such opportunities for 
education as the frontier settlement af- 
forded. He graduated at Yale College 
in 1804, and studied law at Litchfield, 
Connecticut. In 1808, he was elected 
to the legislature of South Carolina; 
and, three years later, he was chosen to 
the national House of Representatives. 
During the six years that he remained 
in the House, he took an active and 
prominent part in the stirring events of 
the time. In 1 8 1 7 he was appointed sec- 
retary of war, and held the office seven 
years. From 1825 to 1832 he was Vice- 
President of the United States. He 
then resigned this office, and took his 
seat as senator from South Carolina. In 

1844 President Tyler called him to his cabinet as secretary of state; and in 

1845 he returned to the Senate, where he remained till his death. 

One hundred and fifty years before the United States achieved their inde- 
pendence, Roger Williams taught that every man is answerable for his be- 
lief to God alone, and that governments have no right to interfere in matters 
of religion. This principle, although rejected at that time, has been a funda- 
mental one with the United States government. This will account for its non- 
interference with the religion of the Mormons, which, about this time, came 
into general notice, and to which there has been individual objection in regard 
to its permission within the Territories of the United States. 

In 1823, Joseph Smith, at Palmyra, New York, proclaimed that he had 
had a vision, wherein an angel stood before him, who declared that he had 
been chosen a prophet to reveal to the world a new religion of Christ, and 
who pointed out to him the place where were hidden some golden plates, on 
which were inscribed the new faith and the history of the Indian races of this 
country. From this he produced what is called the Book of Mormon. After 
various attempts at settlement in Ohio and New York, he and his followers 
moved West, where Smith was killed .by a mob. Brigham Young was chosen 
president in place of the dead prophet and, in 1847, he set out with his fol- 




JOHN C. CALHOUN. 



232 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




A MORMON HOME. 



lowers for the valley of the Great Salt lake, where he founded Great Salt 
Lake City, and where the community have since lived in peace and inde- 
pendence. The present number of Mormons in this country is about forty 
or fifty thousand, made up in great part of proselytes from Europe. The 

,.i-«!^ most notable feature of Mormon- 

ism, as it now exists, is polygamy 
- '. — each saint taking as many wives 

as his circumstances and position 
appear to justify, besides forming 
spiritual unions with others whom 
he does not marry, but who will 
accompany him to paradise. 

President Adams absolutely re- 
fused to employ the influence of 
the government to secure his re- 
election : he was opposed by many 
of his own officers, and General 
Andrew Jackson received the 
greatest number of votes at the 
autumn election of 1828. During the administration of General Jackson 
violent debates arose in Congress on questions concerning the public 
lands and the raising of a revenue for the government. The opposing in- 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



233 



terests of the North and the South now became more fiercely clamorous. 
Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts, and Robert Hayne, of South Carolina, ar- 
gued with great eloquence, the one for " Liberty and Union, now and for- 
ever," the other for " State Rights " of nullification or secession. 

Andrew Jackson was born at the Waxhaw settlement. North Carolina, 
March 15th, 1767. He was admitted to the bar in 1786, and had a large 
and lucrative law practice. He may be said to have begun his military career 
in the Creek war of 1813. 

His foreign policy was highly creditable. The nullification movement, the 
bank war, the Indian troubles, and the hot debates on the currency, tariff and 
slavery questions — all together made Jackson's term of office an exciting one. 
He was glad to retire to the quiet scenes of his " Hermitage," where he died 
of dropsy, June, 1845. 

Daniel Webster (born in Salis- 
bury, New Hampshire, 1782, died 
at Marshfield, Massachusetts, 1852) 
had as a boy no educational ad- 
vantages beyond the home instruc- 
tion of his father and mother, and a 
few terms in the district schools of 
the neighborhood. He passed nine 
months of diligent study at Phillips' 
Exeter Academy, and finished his 
preparation for college in the family 
of a minister at Boscawen. He was 
graduated from Dartmouth with hi^h 
honors in 1801. 

In 1805 Daniel Webster was ad- 
mitted to the bar in Boston, and lo- 
cated in Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1807; in 1808 he was mar- 
ried to Miss Grace Fletcher; in 181 2 he was elected to Congress by the Fed- 
eralists, and was a prominent member of the House for two terms. Then he 
removed to Boston, and, during the busy practice of his profession for the 
next seven years, attained the reputation of the greatest lawyer of his time. 
In 1823 Webster was again sent to the national House of Representatives, 
and was twice re-elected; but, in 1S27, he was transferred to the Senate, of 
which body he was, perhaps, the most conspicuous figure during the next 
twelve years. Webster married a second time in 1829. As secretary of 
state under Harrison and Tyler, and again under Fillmore, he managed the 
foreien affairs of the nation with consummate skill. He was returned to the 
United States Senate in 1845, where he continued until he entered Fillmore's 




DANIEL WEBSTER. 



234 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



cabinet, in 1850. In May, 1852, he was thrown from a carriage and severely 
injured. This accident, no doubt, hastened his death. 

Robert Young Hayne (born 1791, died 1840) entered the United States 
Senate in 1823 and served two terms. He was educated for the law, fought 
in the war of 181 2, was speaker of the House in the South Carolina legisla- 
ture and attorney-general for the State, before coming to Washington. Be- 
fore his senatorial term was ended, he was chosen governor of South Caro- 
lina, and boldly defied President Jackson to enforce his proclamation in regard 
to the nullification acts. 

Hayne possessed brilliant talents, and was especially strong in debate. 
At the autumn election of 1836, Martin Van Buren, of New York, was 
chosen to be President. The electors failed to unite upon a Vice-President, 
and the Senate chose for its presiding officer Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky. 
Martin Van Buren was the first President born after the struggle for inde- 
pendence. His success was due to his abilities as lawyer, politician and states- 
man. He was born at Kinderhook, New York, December 5th, 1782; died 

there July 24th, 1862. He en- 
joyed only a moderate educa- 
tion, and in 1796 began the 
study of law, which he continued 
until 1803, when he was admitted 
to the bar. He had meanwhile 
taken an active part in politics, 
and in 1808 was appointed sur- 
rogate of Columbia county. In 
1 8 1 2 he was elected to the State 
Senate. He continued a mem- 
ber of that body until 1S20, hav- 
ing been, during that period, a 
supporter of the war and the 
canal project. A portion of this 
time he also held the office of attorney-general. He was a member of the 
constitutional convention of the State of New York in 182 1, and in Febru- 
ary of the same year he was elected to the United States Senate, and re- 
elected in 1827, serving until 1829. The following year the gubernatorial 
chair of the State of New York became vacant by the death of Governor 
Clinton, and Mr. Van Buren was selected as the candidate for that office by 
the Democratic party of the State. He was elected, but his career as gover- 
nor was brief, for he soon afterwards accepted, from President Jackson, the 
office of secretary of state. He received a large majority of the electoral 
votes for Vice-President in 1832, which office he continued to fill during Presi- 
dent Jackson's term. 




MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



235 




Martin Van Buren died at his native place in 1862. 

In 1837 occurred a great business revulsion, which brought ruin to thou- 
sands. Speculation had been rampant ; importations ruinously large ; busi- 
ness had been too much expanded, and an unsound credit system prevailed. 
The banks were obliged to suspend specie payments ; a commercial panic 
and failures to an enormous amount were the consequence. Congress in 
vain tried to relieve the country ; the recovery was very slow and tedious. 

The financial difficulties un- 
der which the country had la- 
bored being charged by many 
to the administration, Van Bu- 
ren was not re-elected. The 
Whigs had nominated General 
William H. Harrison, whose 
military services the country 
remembered with gratitude. 
Second on their ticket was 
John Tyler, of Virginia, who 
had been governor of that State 
and had also represented it in 
the United States Senate. The 
presidential campaign was an 
exciting one. Log-cabin and hard cider barrels figured largely in it, as em- 
blematical of Harrison's plain farmer-life in Ohio, and the song of " Tippe- 
canoe and Tyler too" rang through the land. The Whig nominees were 
elected by a large majority. 

President Harrison lived only one month after his inauguration. " Killed 
by office-seekers " would probably be the true verdict ; for, anxious to do jus- 
tice to all men, he gave to the throng of applicants time which he needed for 
repose. He died April 4th, 1841. John Tyler, of Virginia, became Presi- 
dent, retaining the same cabinet which Harrison had appointed and the Sen- 
ate had confirmed. 

John Tyler, the successor of President Harrison, was born in Virginia in 
1 790. He had barely attained manhood when he was elected to the State 
legislature. Five years afterwards he was elected to Congress, and in 1826 
to the gubernatorial chair of his native State. Before the expiration of the 
term of his office he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the Senate of the United 
States, where he officiated as president pro tcm. of that body. He served 
in this capacity till, a difference of opinion having arisen between General 
Jackson and himself, he resigned his seat in 1836. In 1840 he was selected 
by the Whig party as their candidate for Vice-President. He was elected to 
that office by a large majority, and entered upon the discharge of his duties 



GENERAL WILLIAM H. HARRISON. 



236 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




John t^lef-j. 



in March, 1841, when the death of the President, General Harrison, shortly 
after, raised him to the chief-magistracy of the Republic. His term of of- 
fice expired in 1845, after which he lived in retirement in Virginia until early 

in 1 861, when he re-appeared at 
Washington as a deleoate to the 

o o 

Peace Congress, of which body 
he was president. A few weeks 
later he became a member of 
the Virginia convention which 
passed the ordinance of seces- 
sion, and subsequently of the 
Confederate Congress. He died 
in Richmond, January 17th, 1862. 
James K. Polk was inau- 
gurated President in 1845, with 
George M. Dallas as Vice-Presi- 
dent. 

The electro-magnetic tele- 
graph, invented by Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, was now first put to practical 
use. Congress appropriated $30,000 to test the invention, and a line was 
built from Washington to Baltimore. The first public despatch ever sent 
over the wires was the announcement of Polk's nomination. May 29th, 1844. 

In March, 1845, Texas was re- 
ceived into the Union. Mexico 
was displeased with the annexa- 
tion of Texas and, without the 
formality of any declaration of 
war, a Mexican army of 6,000 
men attacked an American army 
of 4,000 in the south-western part 
of that State, but received a se- 
vere defeat. 

President Polk hastened to an- 
nounce to Congress that the Mexi- 
cans had " invaded our territory, 
and shed the blood of our fellow- 
citizens." Congress voted men 
and money for the prosecution of the war, and volunteers ofifered themselves 
in multitudes. Their brave little army was in peril — far from help, and sur- 
rounded by enemies. The people were eager to support the heroes of whose 
victory they were so proud. 

The war was pushed with vigor, at first under the command of General 




JAMES K. POLK. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



237 



Taylor, and finally under General Scott, who, as a very young man, had fought 
ao-ainst the British at Niagara, and, as a very old man, was commander-in- 
chief of the American army when the great war between North and South 
beo-an. Many officers were there whose names became famous in after years. 
Ge'neral Lee and General Grant gained here their first experience of war. 
They were not then known to each other. They met for the first time, twenty 
years after, in a Virginian cottage, to arrange terms of surrender for the de- 
feated army of the Southern Confederacy. 

The Americans resolved to fight their way to the enemy's capital, and 
there compel such a peace as would be agreeable to themselves. The task 




THE ALAMO. 



was not without difficulty. The Mexican army was greatly more numerous. 
They had a splendid cavalry force and an efficient artillery. Their com- 
mander, Santa Anna, unscrupulous even for a Mexican, was yet a soldier of 
some ability. The Americans were mainly volunteers, who had never seen 
war till now. The fighting was severe. At Buena Vista the American army 
was attacked by a force which outnumbered it In the proportion of five to one. 
The batde lasted for ten hours, and the Invaders were saved from ruin by their 
superior artillery. The mountain passes were strongly fortified, and General 
Scott had to convey his army across chasms and ravines which the Mexicans, 
deeming them Impassable, had neglected to defend. Strong In the con- 
sciousness of their superiority to the people they invaded — the same con- 



238 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



sciousness which supported Cortez and his Spaniards three centuries before — 
the Americans pressed on. At length they came in sight of Mexico, at the 
same spot where Cortez had viewed it. Once more they routed a Mexican 
army of gready superior force ; and then General Scott marched his litde 
army of 6,000 men quietly into the capital. The war was closed, and a treaty 
of peace was, with little delay, negotiated. 

Winfield Scott (born 1786, died 1866) was born at Petersburg, Virginia. 
After graduating at William and Mary College he adopted the profession of 
law, but almost immediately abandoned it, entering the army as a captain in 
180^. His brilliant career in the war of 181 2, the Creek war and the war 
with Mexico, has made him one of the most renowned of American generals, 
while the tact and judgment displayed in managing the delicate questions of 
the tariff trouble in South Carolina, and the Canadian agitation of 1837, 
marked him as a skilful diplomate. He was retired in 1861 on full pay and 
rank, and passed his remaining days at West Point. He has left behind him 
several military works, a kw letters, and a book of memoirs of his life. 

Zachary Taylor was one who, previous to his election to the Presidency, 
never held a civil office. He was born in Virginia in 1786. His father, who 
had fought at the side of Washington during all the war of independence, at 

its conclusion settled in Kentucky, 
and conducted his family to their 
forest-home, where his son, amid 
the perils of savage life, had ample 
opportunity of developing those 
military qualities of which he after- 
wards gave so signal a proof At 
the outbreak of the war with Eng- 
land, in 181 2, he hastened to join 
the army, and was appointed to 
guard the banks of the Wabash. 
In that year, while in command of 
the garrison of Fort Henderson, 
consisting only of fifty-two men, 
he was suddenly attacked at mid- 




ZACHARY TAYLOR. 



night by a hostile party, who succeeded in setting fire to the fort. But Taylor, 
with his handful of men, extinguished the flames and forced the enemy to 
retreat. For this exploit he was raised to the rank of major. In the war 
against the Indians, both in Florida and Arkansas, he passed successively 
through all the grades of his profession, till he reached the rank of general. 
Nominated, in 1846, to the command of a corps of observation on the fron- 
tiers of Mexico, an attack of the Mexicans gave him an opportunity of cross- 
ing the Rio Grande, and of gaining his first batde, at Palo Alto. The vie- 



THE UNITED STATES. 



239 



tories of Resaca de la Palma, Monterey and Buena Vista, proved him at once 
a valiant soldier and an able general, and marked him out to the suffrages of 
his countrymen for the Presidency. Chosen in November, 1848, he entered 
on his high office in March, 1849 ; but he had only filled the chair for sixteen 
months when he was attacked by the cholera and died, July, 1850. His last 
words were, "I have tried to do my duty; I am not afraid to die." Millard 
Fillmore, of New York, the Vice-President, now came to the head of the gov- 
ernment. Daniel Webster was appointed secretary of state. Part of the 
dudes of that office were devolved upon the new " Department of the In- 
terior," which has charge of the public lands, of dealings with the Indians, 
and of issuing patents. 

Millard Fillmore was born in Cayuga county, New York, in 1800, which 
at that time was very sparsely settled, and the young boy had the simplest 
of rudimentary educadon. He 
was apprenticed to a trade when 
fourteen, but, being ambidous. 
he studied hard during spare 
hours, and finally obtaining a 
release from his master he en- 
tered a law office as a clerk. 
After two years of drudgery 
there he went to Buffalo, and 
although at first almost penni- 
less and an entire stranger, he 
succeeded in making a living 
and in winning friends who se- 
cured his admission to the bar. 
His abilities soon made him 
known, and his rise was rapid. 

His polidcal life commenced in 1828, when he was elected to the State 
legislature. In 1832 he was first elected to Congress, and served one term. 
He was re-elected in 1836, and held his seat undl 1842, when he declined a 
renomination. In doctrine he was a staunch Whig, and took an active part 
in the debates in Congress. He was appointed chairman of the committee 
of ways and means, a most important post, and took the leading part in draw- 
ing up the tariff of 1842. After redring from Congress Mr. Fillmore was a 
candidate for Vice-President but failed to secure the nomination. He was 
also defeated as the Whig nominee for governor of New York in 1844 ; but 
in 1847 he was elected comptroller of the State, and displayed great ability in 

that office. 

As President, Fillmore won the sincere admiration of his cabinet. His 
messages to Congress contained many suggestions of great value to the 




MILLARD FILLMORE. 



240 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



country, but none of them were carried out, owing to purely political reasons. 
Fillmore signed the various acts comprised in Mr. Clay's compromise meas- 
ures, being convinced of their constitutionality ; but the Fugitive Slave Law, 
which was included, was so offensive to the Abolition party that, when Mr. Fill- 
more was again nominated for President in 1856 by the "American" party, 
he was unable to secure the electoral vote of a single Northern State. He 
then retired to private life in Buffalo, New York, where he died in 1874, of 
paralysis. 

Franklin Pierce was elevated to the Presidency in 1853. The great po- 
litical events of Pierce's administration arose from a bill introduced into Con- 
gress by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, " to organize the Territories 
of Kansas and Nebraska." Disregarding the Missouri Compromise, this bill 
left to the majority of people in each Territory the choice whether to enter the 
Union as a slave or a free State. It became a law after five months of violent 
debate. Then began a rush for the first possession of the land. 

Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, was born 1804, and died 1869. He 
graduated at Bowdoin College in the class of 1824, and was admitted to the 

bar three years later. He was 
very successful as a lawyer. His 
political life began in the legisla- 
ture of his State, from which, in 
• 1833, he was transferred to the 
lower house of Congress. In 
1837 he was chosen United States 
senator. Twice Mr. Pierce re- 
fused cabinet appointments by 
President Polk, and once declined 
the nomination of his party for 
governor of New Hampshire. 
He favored the annexation of 
Texas, and was among the first to 
volunteer for the Mexican war. 
For bravery in action he rapidly rose from the ranks to a brigadier-general- 
ship, and was comrjiissioned by General Scott to arrange an armistice after 
the battle of Churubusco. When made President, in 1852, he received 254 
electoral votes to forty-two cast for Winfield Scott. Pierce's entire adminis- 
tration was one of intense political excitement. Party feeling ran high in all 
parts of the country. The President was an advocate of the doctrine of 
" State Rights," and opposed every anti-slavery movement. After the expira- 
tion of his term of office Mr. Pierce made an extended European tour, and 
then settled down in his quiet New Hampshire home. 

Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in Brandon, Vermont, 181 3, and died 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



241 



at Chicago, 1861. He emigrated to the West in 1833, and a year later com- 
menced the practice of law in Jacksonville, Illinois. He showed such ability 
in his profession that at the youthful age of twenty-two years he was chosen 
attorney-general of the State. In 1840 he was appointed secretary of state, 
and the same year a judge on the supreme bench of Illinois. Douglas first 
became a candidate for Congress in 1837, but was defeated. Again nominated 
by the Democrats in 1843, he was more successful. He was re-elected to the 
House of Representatives the two following terms, and in 1847 was promoted 
to the Senate. He was an acknowledged leader in this high body for the re- 
mainder of his life. During his long congressional career Mr. Douglas took 
part ably in the discussion of every important political question before the 
nation. He was a master of constitutional law, a powerful debater, and ex- 
erted a strong personal influence over his audiences. He was a man of 
large frame, though not tall, and was popularly styled " the little giant." His 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, which embodied the doctrine of "squatter sover- 
eignty" (as termed by the papers of the day), was the cause of exciting con- 
troversy throughout the land, and led to the formation of the Republican 
party. At the Baltimore convention, in 1852, Mr. Douglas received ninety- 
two votes as candidate for the Presidency; and at Cincinnati, in 1856, 121 
votes. In i860 he was the nominee of the northern wing of the Democratic 
party, and received a very large popular vote. He greatly deplored the civil 
war, and strongly denounced the doctrine of secession. 

James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, became the fifteenth Presi- 
dent of the United States ; John 



being 



Vice- 



c 



C. Breckenridfje 
President. 

This President was born in 
Franklin county, Pennsylvania, 
1 79 1, and died near Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, in 1868. He was 
admitted to the bar in 181 2, and 
practised at Lancaster. Begin- 
ning as a Federalist, he was a 
member of Congress in 1821-31 ; 
minister to Russia in 1832-4; 
United States sena/.or, 1834-45; 
secretary of state under Presi- 
dent Polk, 1845-9, opposing the 
anti-slavery movement; United 
States minister to England, 1853-6. In 1856 he was Democratic candidate 
for President, and was elected. In Congress he favored a tariff merely for 
revenue. As President he soon announced his intention to make it his spe- 

16 




' /II'/ 
james buch 



242 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



cial study to suppress the slavery agitation, and to restore the harmony be- 
tween the States that had been disturbed by sectional violence. His well-in- 
tentioned efforts in this direction were not successful. It was clear long- be- 
fore the close of his administration that a severer struggle than the country 
had yet gone through was fast becoming inevitable. After Mr. Buchanan had 
retired from the Presidency on the 4th of March, 1861, he withdrew to the 
privacy of Wheatland, his country home, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 
Here he spent the remainder of his days, taking no prominent part in pub- 
lic affairs. Always a keen observer of public events as well as a most patri- 
otic man, he watched the progress of the war of the Rebellion with the 
greatest solicitude. In 1866 he published a volume entitled " Mr. Buchanan's 
Administration," in which he explained the policy he had pursued while in 
the presidential office. He died at Wheadand, on the ist of June, in the 
year 1868. 

The Democratic party, in convention at Charleston, became divided on the 
question of slavery in the Territories. The seceding minority formed a new 
convention at Richmond, and nominated John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, 
to be the next President. The majority adjourned to Baltimore and nomi- 
nated Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. A third party named John Bell, of 
Tennessee, and Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, for President and Vice- 
President. The Republicans meanwhile nominated Abraham Lincoln, of Illi- 
nois, and Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine. 

By dividing its forces the Democratic party lost the power which it had 

held for twelve out of fifteen 
presidential terms since the ac- 
cession of Jefferson. Mr. Lin- 
coln was, therefore, elected by a 
plurality of votes. The threat 
of withdrawing from the Union 
was put into force, and an ordi- 
nance of secession passed by 
South Carolina. Within a few 
weeks Georgia and all the Gulf 
States had followed the example. 
A convention of delegates from 
six of the seven seceding States 
met at Montgomery, Alabama, 
in February, i86i,and organized 
a new government under the 
title of "The Confederate States of America." The main features of its con- 
stitution were modelled upon those of the United States, but the sovereign 
rights of each State were recognized ; the favor of foreign nations was sought 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



243 



by pledges of free trade ; and slavery was guaranteed protection not only in 
existing States, but in Territories yet to be acquired. 

Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, and Alexander H. Stephens were elected 
President and Vice-President of the new confederacy. 

It is not our purpose to dwell upon the details of the late war, which is 
yet fresh in the memory of many, and of which there are many histories. 

The blockade of the Southern ports effected for many months an almost 
complete isolation of the Confederates from the world outside. Now and 
then a ship, laden with arms and clothing and medicine, ran past the blockad- 
ing squadron and discharged her precious wares in a Southern port. Now 




VICKSBURG. 

and then a ship laden with cotton stole out and got safely to sea. But this 
perilous and scanty commerce afforded no appreciable relief to the want 
which had already begun to brood over this doomed people. The govern- 
ment could find soldiers enough, but it could not find for them arms and 
clothing. The railroads could not be kept in working condition in the absence 
of foreign iron. Worst of all, a scarcity of food began to threaten. Jeffer- 
son Davis begged his people to lay aside all thought of gain, and devote 
themselves to the raising of supplies for the army. Even now the army was 
frequently on half-supply of bread. The South could look back with just 
pride upon a long train of brilliant victories, gained with scanty means by her 



244 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

own valor and genius. But, even in this hour of triumph, it was evident that 
her position was desperate. 

The North had not yet completely established her supremacy upon the 
Mississippi. Two rebel strongholds — Vicksburgand Port Hudson — had suc- 
cessfully resisted Federal attack, and maintained communication between the 
revolted provinces on either side the great river. The reduction of these was 
indispensable. General Grant was charged with the important enterprise, 
and proceeded in February to begin his work. 

For six weeks Grant pressed the siege with a fiery energy which allowed 
no rest to the besieged. General Johnston was not far off, mustering an army 
for the relief of Vicksburg, and there was not an hour to lose. Grant kept 
a strict blockade upon the scantily-provisioned city. From his gun-boats and 
from his own lines he maintained an almost ceaseless bombardment. The 
inhabitants crept into caves in the hill to find shelter from the intolerable fire. 
They slaughtered their mules for food. They patiently endured the inevitable 
hardships of their position ; and their daily newspaper, printed on scraps of 
such paper as men cover their walls with, continued to the end to make light 
of their sufferings, and to breathe defiance against General Grant. But all 
was vain. On the 4th of July — the anniversary of independence — Vicksburg 
was surrendered with her garrison of 23,000 men. 

During the later years of the war the North exerted her giant strength to 
the utmost, in order to crush the stubborn defence of the revolted States. 
She had 1,000,000 men under arms. She had 600 ships-of-war. Her peo- 
ple supplied freely, although on terms whose severity patriotism did not ap- 
pear to modify, the means of an enormous expenditure. Her own factories 
worked night and day to provide military stores ; and their efforts were freely 
supplemented by the dockyards and foundries of Europe. Peaceful America 
was for the time the greatest military power of the world. Her soldiers had 
gained the skill of veterans. Among her generals men had been found 
worthy to direct the vast forces of the republic. 

The poor Confederates were habitually ill-supplied with food. Every 
available man was already in the ranks; if men could have been found, there 
were no arms to give them. The strength of the Confederacy waned so 
steadily that Grant became anxious lest General Lee should take to flight and 
renew the war on other fields. He prepared an attack with overwhelming 
numbers upon the enfeebled Southern lines. He stormed a fort in the centre 
of Lee's position, cutting his army in two, and making an immediate retreat 
inevitable. The rebel government fled from Richmond, and General Lee, a 
few days afterward, laid down his arms. The North had triumphed. After 
four years of war the Rebellion was quelled, and the authority of the Federal 
government was undisputed from Atlantic to Pacific, from the great lakes to 
the Gulf of Mexico. 



THE UNITED STATES. 245 

Mr. Lincoln was elected President and entered upon his second term of 
office a few weeks before the close of the war. He was with the army when 
its final triumphs were gained, and he visited Richmond on the day of sur- 
render, walking through the streets with his litde boy by his side. No heart 
in all the rejoicing land was more thankful and more glad than his. He oc- 
cupied himself with measures for healing the nation's wounds. No thought 
of vengeance for the past was entertained. Security for the future was nec- 
essary, but it was to be sought for with all leniency and gendeness. Possess- 
insr, as no man but Washington had ever done, the confidence of the Ameri- 
can people, Lincoln was pre-eminendy fitted to soothe the humiliated South 
and reunite the severed sisterhood of States. But the nation was to lose 
him when its need was at the greatest. 

A few days after the fall of Richmond, Mr. Lincoln visited one of the 
Washington theatres. He went with some reluctance, moved by the consid- 
eradon that the people expected him to go, and would be disappointed by his 
absence. As the play went on, a fanatical adherent of the fallen Confederacy, 
an actor called Booth, made his way stealthily into the President's box. He 
crept close up to Mr. Lincoln, and holding a pistol within a few inches lodged 
a bullet deep in the brain. The President sat motionless, save that his head 
sank down upon his breast. He never regained consciousness, but lingered 
till morning, and then passed away. 

Before dismissing our reference to the war we may mention a fight which 
occurred upon the sea. 

On the 8th of March, 1S62, a strange-looking craft appeared in Hampton 
Roads. It was the old United States steamer Merrimac, now in Confederate 
service, cut down to the water's edge and fitted with a sharp steel prow and a 
sloping iron-plated roof. Steering directly for the sloop-of-war Cumberland, 
it so disabled her by one blow of her steel beak that she sank, with her flag 
flying and with all her men on board. 

The United States fricrate Confjress was next attacked. She was run 
ashore, but the Merrimac poured into her such a storm of shot and shell that 
she was forced to surrender. The new sea-monster then retired to Norfolk, 
intending to complete its work of destruction the next day. Early in the 
morning it steamed out again, and approached the steam-frigate Minnesota; 
but before it had fired a gun a new champion appeared upon the scene. 

It was the iron-clad Monitor of Captain Ericsson, which had arrived from 
New York during the night, just in time for its first trial of strength. Its deck 
near the surface of the water was protected by a heavy iron sheathing; it was 
surmounted by an iron tower, which, slowly revolving, turned its two enor- 
mous guns in every direction. The duel between these odd antagonists was 
not unlike David fighting Goliath, for the Monitor was less than one-fifth the 
burden of the Merrimac. But the shot and shells of the latter rolled harm- 



■246 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



lessly off the iron sheathing of her little opponent, while her huge beak passed 
above the deck and could not reach the tower. The Monitor glided nimbly 
away from every charge, and found out every weak spot in the Merrimac's 
armor where a heavy ball from her guns could 
make a leak, thus preventing her from eneaeino- 
any other vessel. The Merrimac withdrew to 
Norfolk for repairs. She was blown up by the 
Confederates two months later, on the surrender 
of Norfolk to the United States. The national 
government immediately contracted with Cap- 
tain Ericsson for a fleet of " Monitors," which 
effectually defended the coast, and made the 
United States for a time the grreatest naval 
power in the world. 

John Ericsson was born in 1803 in the prov- 
ince of Vermeland, Sweden ; and at an early age 
displayed great mechanical ability. After serv- 
ing some years as an engineer in the Swedish army he went to England, 
where he introduced several important inventions which attracted great atten- 
tion and gained the inventor several medals and prizes. His invention of the 
propeller not being well received, however, he came to the United States in 1 839, 
and two years later built a war-steamer, the Princeton, for the government, 
which was the first steamship ever built with the propeller machinery. This 
vessel was also furnished with numerous other ingenious inventions of Erics- 
son's, which have since come into 




JOHN ERICSSON. 




common use. The revolving tur- 



ret, however, is the most impor- 
tant of Ericsson's inventions, and 
has caused a complete change in 
the naval architecture of the 
world. 

Andrew Johnson, the seven- 
teenth President of the United 
States, was born at Raleigh, 
North Carolina, in 1808. At the 
age of ten was apprenticed to a 
tailor in Raleigh. Without a 
single day's schooling he taught 
himself to read. In 1826 he re- 
moved with his mother to Tennessee, where he married and setded in Green- 
ville. His wife taught him to write and cipher. He was elected alderman, 
mayor, member of the legislature, and finally a member of Congress in 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 



THE UNITED STATES. 247 

1843-53 • w^^ governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, and United States 
senator from 1857 to 1863. The resolute opponent of secession, he was tireless 
in his efforts to uphold the national cause during the early stages of the 
Rebellion, and, on the reoccupation of Nashville in 1862, he was appointed by 
President Lincoln military governor of Tennessee; was nominated Vice-Presi- 
dent by the Baltimore convention of 1864, and, on the assassination of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, succeeded him in the presidential chair. At first he displayed a 
spirit of much severity to the rebels, but was afterwards more liberal in his 
policy, and so hostile to the reconstruction policy of Congress that he was im- 
peached by that body, tried and acquitted May 26th, 1868 — thirty-five voting 
him guilty, nineteen voting not guilty. During his Presidency the submarine 
telegraphic cable was successfully laid, and congratulatory messages were ex- 
changed July 28th, 1866. 

By the elections in the autumn of 1868 General Ulysses S. Grant became 
the eighteenth President, and Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, Vice-President of 
the United States. 

Ulysses S. Grant was born in 1822 at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, 
Ohio, and passed his boyhood in the neighboring village of Georgetown. At 
the age of seventeen he entered West Point, where he graduated four years 
later without having distinguished himself, being twenty-first in a class of 
thirty-nine. As a second lieutenant he was stationed on the frontier until the 
breaking out of the Mexican war. He was in every important battle of the 
latter except that of Buena Vista, and received the warmest . praise from his 
superior officers for gallant conduct. He was rewarded by brevets on two 
occasions. He resigned his commission as captain in 1854, and attempted 
farming near St. Louis. Not meeting with much success, however, he ac- 
cepted a position in his father's tannery at Galena, Illinois. Here he lived in 
comparative obscurity, and at the breaking out of the civil war was entirely 
unknown to the public. When President Lincoln issued his call for volunteers 
Grant organized and drilled a company at Galena, and at the same time 
offered his services by letter to the adjutant-general, but was ignored. 
Marching his company to Springfield, Illinois, he was appointed by the gov- 
ernor to muster the State volunteers, and five weeks later was made colonel 
of a regiment. He first reported to General Pope, in Missouri, and shortly 
after, having been appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, he was placed in 
command of the district of south-east Missouri. His first act of importance 
was the seizure of Paducah, which had great influence in keeping Kentucky 
in the Union ; and the capture of Fort Donelson, which followed soon after, 
gave him a national reputation and won him his commission of major-general 
ot volunteers. His career was now a series of brilliant successes, and his 
generalship at Chattanooga is considered by military authorities as the master- 
piece of the war. He has been severely criticised for recklessly sacrificing 



248 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



the lives of his soldiers, but without just cause ; for although the battles dur- 
ing his advance on Richmond were unusually severe and costly to the Union 
side, yet Grant felt that he was pursuing the shortest ajid best course to put 
an end to the horrors of civil war, and the result proved the correctness of his 
judgment. 

Grant was included in the plot of the conspirators who murdered Lincoln, 
and probably escaped death through declining the latter's invitation to join the 
party at the theatre. 

The years 1871 and 1872 were marked by several dreadful fires. For two 
days Chicago was burning — solid masses of stone, iron, and brick making 
scarcely more resistance to the fierce heat than the lightest wooden buildings. 
Nearly 100,000 persons were deprived of homes; and the property destroyed 
was worth ^200,000,000. About the same time the great lumber-lands of 
Wisconsin and Michigan were visited by immense conflagrations. The flames 
spread from forests to villages ; people plunged into lakes or rivers to escape 
them, but uncounted hundreds perished. 

Boston was visited in November, 1872, by a similar disaster, though with 
less loss of life and property. More than sixty acres, covered with magnifi- 
cent structures of granite 
and brick, were laid in ashes, 
g^"-~^ "^ <^mjy^-\ The disaster was greater 

from an epidemic which had 
disabled all the horses in 
Boston, so that the heavy 
fire-engines had to be drawn 
by men. 

Though the government 
had pursued a conciliatory 
course to the Indians, a 
hostile disposition was mani- 
fested early in 1876 by 
the Sioux in Dakota, Mon- 
tana and Wyoming. They 
refused to settle upon a 
reservation, and attacked 
friendly Indians under the 
protection of the United 
States. It was necessary 
to reduce them by force. In June, General Custer, with part of his regiment, 
came upon the hostile Sioux, 2,500 strong, near the Little Big-Horn river, and 
without waiting for support dashed upon them. His whole force was over- 
whelmed and destroyed, Custer himself being slain while fighting gal- 




INDIAN CHIEF. 




i ,5; 



GENERAL GRANT. 



(249) 



250 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



lantly. A brave, who was in the battle, afterwards related how " the White 
Chief," when his comrades had all fallen and his fire-arms were emptied, un- 
dauntedly defended himself with his sword until a bullet laid him in the dust. 
The Federal army, reinforced, subsequendy pursued and broke up the Sioux, 
and compelled most of them to surrender. 

The election of 1876 was unusually exciting. The candidate on the Re- 
publican side was Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, and the candidate on the 
Democratic side Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. The contest was close, and 
the issue for some time doubtful. Charges of fraud were made by the one 
side, and intimidation by the other. From several States two opposing cer- 
tificates were handed in. When Congress met, there was a long debate. It 
was agreed at last that a commission consisting of five judges of the Supreme 
Court, five senators, and five representadves, should hear the evidence and 
decide. Their conclusion was reached two days before the end of General 
Grant's term. It was to the effect that the Republicans had cast one hundred 
and eighty-five electoral votes for Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio ; the Demo- 
crats had cast one hundred and eighty-four for Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. 
So the vexed question was settled, and President Hayes was inaugurated (the 
4th being Sunday) on the 5th of March, 1877. 

Rutherford Birchard Hayes was born at Delaware, Ohio, in 1822. He 
guaduated at Kenyon College, in that State, and after taking his degree at 

the Harvard Law School, com- 
menced the practice of law at 
Fremont, Ohio. In 1849 he 
moved to Cincinnati, and soon 
established a flourishing prac- 
tice. He was made major of the 
Twenty-third Ohio Volunteers in 
1 861, and served throughout the 
war. He was badly wounded at 
South Mountain, and shortly 
after was promoted to a colonel- 
cy. His gallant service in many 
of the hardest batdes of the 
army of the Potomac was re- 
RUTtiERFORD B. HAYES. wardcd by successive advances 

in rank, and at the close of the war Hayes was a brevet major-general. 
After the batde of Cedar Creek, in which he took part, Hayes was notified of 
his election to Congress from the second district of Ohio. He resigned from 
the army in June, 1865, and the following December took his seat in Con- 
gress. He was re elected in 1866, but resigned his seat to accept the gover- 
norship of Ohio : the latter office was held for two successive terms, when he 




THE UNITED STATES. 



251 




again became a candidate for Congress and was defeated. In 1875 he re- 
ceived an unprecedented honor in his native State, being elected governor for 
the third time. His popularity in Ohio, and the stand taken by him on the 
issues at stake in his last contest for the governorship, brought him promi- 
nently before the country, and resulted in his nomination for the Presidency 
in 1876. 

Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, and who 
was believed by many to have been actually 
elected, performed great service to iiis coun- 
try in the way of political reform. Purity of 
government seems to have been dearer to 
him than mere party success. This is now 
conceded by those whose political views were 
different from his own. 

His great work in destroying the Tweed 
and the Canal rings in New York would 
entitle him to a permanent place among the 
greatest of political reformers, even if his 
prominence as a public-spirited citizen for 
fifty years, his devotion to important public 
questions and his discussions of great prin- 
ciples of law, finance and State during that 
long period did not constitute an example of 
unselfish and patriotic statesmanship which 
has been rarely equalled in our annals. In the highest relations of public 
life Mr. Tilden has always combined more nearly, perhaps, than any of his 
contemporaries, the two great kinds of quality — theoretic and practical — 
which form the true statesman, a profound understanding of the philosophic 
grounds of political opinion, and the sagacious tact and energy of the man of 
business. He died August 4th, 1886. 

The four years' term of Mr. Hayes was chiefly remarkable as a period of 
peace and prosperity. Bounteous harvests supplied an enormous export of 
grain to European markets. Immigrants arrived at our ports in greater 
numbers than ever before, and an unusual proportion of these were indus- 
trious people, who were likely to be an advantage rather than a burden to the 
country. The census taken in June, 1880, showed the population of the 
United States to be more than fifty millions. 

The election in the following November resulted in the choice of James 
A. Garfield, of Ohio, to be the twentieth President of the United States, and 
of Chester A. Arthur, of New York, to be Vice-President. The Demo- 
cratic candidate for the Presidency was General Winfield S. Hancock. 

Not far from Cleveland, Ohio, on November 19th, 1831, a very humble 



SAMUEL J, TILDEN. 



252 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




JAMES A. GARFIELD. 



home was brightened by the birth of a son, now known to the world as 
James Abram Garfield. Living on the frontier, his early life was one full 
of the struggles that accompany poverty. On the farm helping his mother ; 

at the carpenter's bench ; on 
the canal, he studied hard, read- 
ing all the while. At eighteen 
years old he was fitted to teach 
country-school, and became a 
popular teacher. From 1851 to 
1854 he studied at Hiram Insti- 
tute, Ohio, teaching in the win- 
ter, working as a carpenter, in 
the haying or harvest fields, in 
summer and autumn, keeping up 
with his studies. He entered 
Williams College, Massachusetts, 
in 1854, and graduated in 1856, 
having accomplished his " definite 
purpose," but he was $500 in debt. He was soon elected president of Hiram 
Institute. His success as an instructor was marked. While attending to his 
multifarious duties as teacher, giving lectures on a great variety of subjects, 
preaching on Sundays, he began, in 1857, the 
study of law. By the year 1859 his strength 
of mind and character, and his ability as an 
orator were so well known, that he was elect- 
ed to the State senate, and immediately 
took high rank as a speaker and debater. 

While factional animosities were rankling 
in their greatest decree of bitterness, the 
President was stricken down by the assassin 
Guiteau. He lay, alternating between lif(; 
and death, from the 2d of July until the 19th 
of September, when he died at Long Branch, 
to which place he had been recently re- 
moved from Washington. Upon the morn- 
ing of September 20th, Vice-President Ches- 
ter A. Arthur took the oath of office as 
chief executive of the United States, the 
country having been without a President for the space of three hours and a half. 
Chester A. Arthur, the son of a New England minister, was born at Fair- 
field, Vermont, in 1830. Early in life his father moved to Troy, New York, 
and in 1844 sent young Arthur to Union, College, Schenectady, New York, 




CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 




QENERAT. HANCOCK. 



(■25S) 



254 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

then under the presidency of Rev. Eliphalet Nott, one of ablest men in 
his profession at that time. He graduated in 1848 and, studying law, 
was admitted to the bar in 1850. During the three or four years follow- 
ing he confined himself strictly to his profession, winning some reputation 
as an advocate. 

On the formation of the Republican party in 1856, young Arthur sup- 
ported Fremont, and afterwards Lincoln, in i860. He was appointed collector 
of the port of New York by Grant in 1871, and when his term expired was 
reappointed, and the Senate, by a unanimous vote, confirmed the appointment 
without reference to a committee — a high and unusual compliment. He died 
November i8th, 1886. 

Winfield Scott Hancock, the Democratic candidate for the Presidency, was 
born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, February 14th, 1S24, and died 
February 9th, 1886. His mother's father was a Revolutionary soldier and 
was captured at sea and confined in the Dartmoor prison, England. His 
great-grandfather on his mother's side was also a soldier under Washington 
and rendered good service, dying at the close of the Revolution from exposure 
and hardships endured in the field. Hancock's father served in the war of 
1812, and afterwards became a lawyer of distinction in Montgomery county, 
Pennsylvania. At the age of sixteen Hancock was sent to West Point, and 
had for classmates, U. S. Grant, George B. McClellan, J. F. Reynolds, J. L. 
Reno, Burnside, Franklin and W. F. Smith. He graduated in 1844, June 30th, 
and in 1845-6 served with his regiment in the Indian Territory as a second 
lieutenant of the Sixth Infantry. In 1847 we find him in Mexico and conspic- 
uous for his gallantry at the Natural Bridge, San Antonio, Contreras, Chur- 
ubusco, Molino del Rey and the capture of the City of Mexico. He was 
brevetted for gallantry at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. 

When he heard of the Rebellion he took hieh g-round in favor of the Union, 
and did much in 1861 to check the secession spirit then seizing upon the State 
of California. 

General Hancock's services on the Peninsula and at Antietam were as 
brilliant and striking as those of any of the lieutenants of the commanding 
general, and for his gallantry at Chancellorsville he was made permanent 
commander of the Second Corps. 

It was at Gettysburg Hancock again loomed up before the country as a 
hero. He was commanding the rear-guard of the army in its advance on 
Gettysburg, and had reached Tarrytown, the place where his grandfather, one 
hundred years before, had started to escort one thousand Hessian prisoners 
of Burgoyne's army to Valley Forge, when General Meade sent him an order 
to hasten to the front and assume command of all the troops there. It is well 
known that Gettysburg might have been a Confederate victory, had it not 
have been for Hancock turning the tide in favor of the Union forces. 



THE UNITED STATES. 255 

We have now reached the period of the present administration. In what 
was forty years ago the hamlet and is still the obscure town of Caldwell, 
Essex county, New Jersey, there stands yet a little two-story-and-a-half 

white house with wooden shutters, and there, 

a in the year 1837, was born Stephen Grover 
Cleveland. His career has been carelessly 
characterized as brief and uneventful, because 
his name has not been in every man's mouth 
and mind for a quarter of a century; be- 
cause it has been unmarked by sensation- 
al episodes and is lacking in the romantic 
incidents which make biography fascinating ; 
but if less brilliant and extravagant and 
eventful than that of the lives of some of 
the men who have been President of the 
■ Republic or who have aspired to that exalted 
I , station, the career of Stephen Grover Cleve- 

L.^ ;U land is typical of our time and our country, 

STEPHEN GROVER cLEVEi-AND. ^^j [[i Jtg Comparatively few pages the youth 
of our land will find a story of trial, struggle and triumph, inspiring the 
highest ideals, illustrating the noblest virtues and teaching the truest lessons 
of the citizenship into which they are born. 

PHYSICAL FEATURES OF NORTH AMERICA. 

If we take a glance at the physical aspect of North America we will find 
that two great mountain systems form the rocky framework of the continent. 
The eastern or Appalachian system, extending in a direcdon nearly parallel 
with the Atlandc coast, is divided by several river-valleys into the White 
mountains of New Hampshire, the Green mountains of Vermont, the Adi- 
rondacks of New York, the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania and Virginia, the 
Blue Ridge and Cumberland mountains of the Southern States. The gentle 
slope and frequent divisions of these mountains permit the navigation of 
many rivers far from the sea ; and the two thousand miles of coast which now 
form the eastern and part of the southern limit of the United States, are 
broken by bays, inlets, and fine harbors, large enough to shelter the shipping 
of all the world. 

The Cordilleras of the western part of the continent form a grand moun- 
tain-system 1,100 miles across its greatest width, consisting of elevated table- 
lands cut by narrow canons and bounded by sdll higher ridges and peaks. 
The coast range descends abrupdy to the Pacific, and its westward-flowing 
rivers are short and rapid. It is broken in the north by the gorges, or dalles, 
of the Columbia river, and farther south by San Francisco bay, which extends 



256 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



SO far into the interior as to receive tlie Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from 
the eastern slope. 

On the various elevations west of the Sierra Nevada, nearly all the grains 




OIANT TREES OF CALIFORNIA. 



and fruits of the world can be made to grow ; but the date-palm, most bounte- 
ous of the gifts of nature, has been found best adapted to the river-valleys of 
Arizona. The greatest growth of the soil is the gigantic sequoia of California, 

whose trunk, twenty feet or 
more in diameter near the 
base, rises often to a height 
of 300 feet. There are ten 
groves of these big trees. 
Some of the trees, by actual 
measurements, have been 
found to be 450 feet in 
height, whose huge trunks 
measure 1 1 6 feet in circum- 
ference. 

North-westward from the 
Mississippi valley is a chain 
of five great lakes, con- 
taining collectively nearly 
half the fresh water in the 
world. Before reaching the 
last of the lakes, the mass 
of water plunges over a 
precipice 160 feet in height, 
making the great cataract which is known as the Falls of Niagara. 

Niagara falls are situated on the river of the same name, a strait connect- 
ing the floods of Lakes Erie and Ontario, and dividing a portion of the State 




NIAUARA FALLS. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



257 



of New York on the west from the Province of Ontario. The cataracts thus 
lie within the territory both of Great Britain and the United States. 

Niagara, in the Iroquois language, signifies " Thunder of Waters." The 
waters for which the Niag- 



ara is the outlet cover an 
area of 150,000 square 



grand 




miles — floods so 
and inexhaustible that the 
loss of the hundred mil- 
lions of tons which they 
pour every hour, through 
succeeding centu ries, over 
these stupendous preci- 
pices is totally impercep- 
tible. 

The Horseshoe Fall, 
always marvellous from 
whatever position it is 
viewed, forms the con- 
necting link between the 
scenes of the American 
and Canadian sides of the 
river. This mighty cata- 
ract is 144 rods across, 
and it is said by Professor 
Lyell, that 1,500,000,000 
cubic feet of water pass 
over its ledges every 
hour. 

Gull Island, just above 
the Horseshoe Fall, is an 
unapproachable spot up- 
on which it is not likely yosemite valley. 
that man has ever yet stood, and it is hardly possible that he can ever do so. 

Three miles below the falls on the American side is the Whirlpool, resem- 
bling in its appearance the celebrated Maelstrom on the coast of Norway. 

The Yosemite falls in California are amongst the most wonde.f-ful in the 
world. Yosemite, in the Indian tongue, means "Large Grizzly Bear." There 
is first a vertical leap of 1,500 feet ; then a series of cascades down a descent 
equal to 626 feet perpendicular, and then a final plunge of 400 feet to the 
rocks at the base of the precipice. The rumble and roar of the falls are heard 
at all times, but in the quiet of the evening they are so great that it seems as 

17 



258 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



if the very earth were shaking. No falls in the known world can be com- 
pared with these in height and romantic grandeur. The renowned Staub- 
bach of Switzerland is greatly inferior, both in height and volume. There are 
other remarkable falls in the Yosemite valley. One, bearing the romantic 
name of Bridal Veil Fall, leaps over a cliff 900 feet high into the valley be- 
low. The water, long ere it reaches its rocky bed, is converted into mist, and 
descends in a white sheet of spray. The Virgin's Tears creek, on the other 
side of the valley, directly opposite the Bridal Veil, makes a fine fall over 
J, 000 feet high, inclosed in a deep recess of the rock. This is a beautiful 
fall while it lasts, but the stream which produces it dries up early in the 
season. 

In the United States there are many places which will afford as grand 
panoramic views of mountain and valley as can be found in Switzerland it- 
self This is notably so amongst the coal regions of Pennsylvania. Mauch 
Chunk, for instance, is noted for being situated in the midst of some of the 
wildest and most picturesque scenery in America, the village lying in a nar- 
row gorge between and among 
high mountains, its foot rest- 
ing on the Lehigh river and 
its body lying along the hill- 
sides. The villao-e is but one 
street wide, and the valley is 
so narrow that the dwelling 
houses usually have their gar- 
dens and outhouses perched 
above the roof. Prospect 
Rock is a projecting bluff from 
which a pleasant view may be 
had ; but the view from Flag- 
staff Peak, just above, is much 
finer, and the ascent is easily 
made. Glen Onoko is a wild 
and beautiful ravine on the side 
of Broad mountain, about two 
miles from the village. It is 
900 yards long and from forty 
to eighty feet wide, and pre- 
sents a continuous succession 
of cascades, rapids and pools, 
which afford a fine spectacle in 
seasons of high water. 
The celebrated " Switch-Back " railroad, which at one time was used to 




SWITZERLAND OF AMERICA. 



THE UNITED STATES. 



259 



bring coal from Panther-Creek valley, is now used only as a pleasure road. 
It is run by gravity. The cars are drawn to the top of Mount Pisgah by a 
powerful engine on the summit, whence they descend six miles, by gravity, to 
the foot of Mount Jefferson, where they are again taken up by means of an in- 
clined plane, which ascends 462 feet in a length of 2,070 feet, and then run on 
to Summit Hill. From that point the cars return, all the way, by the " back- 
track" or gravity road, to Mauch Chunk, landing the passengers but a short 
distance from the spot where they commenced the ascent of Mount Pisgah. 

Chautauqua lake, long the pride of western New York, and now the ad- 
miration of the whole country, claims here a word from us. It lies 700 feet 
above Lake Erie, which is but seven miles distant. It is about twenty miles 




POINT CHAUTAUQUA, 

in length, and o. an average depth of twenty feet, ranging from shallows of 
but a few inches to eighty feet. Its banks are of gentle slope, stretching up- 
ward on every side into a beautiful landscape of forest and field. 

At Chautauqua, what is known as the Sunday-School Assembly was pro- 
jected by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and organized under 
the auspices of the normal department of the Sunday-School Union of that 
church. 

With its National Sunday-School Assembly, Church Congress, Scientific 
Congress and temperance conventions ; with wise men in control, and call- 
ing together the best talent of the nation to its yearly feasts of science and 
religion ; with its Park of Palestine, Jewish Tabernacle, model of Jerusalem 



260 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



oriental house and Great Pyramid ; witli its book bazaar and museum ; with 
Ostrander and orientals in full dress, together with Van Lennap, the Turk ; 
with an auditorium of 5,000 capacity, a pavilion of 2,000 capacity, a children's 
temple in amphitheatre form to seat also 2,000 ; with its vocal concerts, in- 
strumental concerts, stereopticon exhibitions, fire-works, music on the lake 
and croquet ; with its cool, clear springs, health-giving breezes and gentle 
showers ; with boating, bathing and fishing, and its unlimited go-to-meeting 
privileges — every day three first-class lectures or sermons ; five services for 
Bible-study, etc., etc. — Chautauqua is already a household word in thousands 
of American homes. 

Our work would be incomplete did we omit all reference to Mount Wash- 




TIP-TOP HOUSE, MOUNT WASHINGTON. 

ington, the loftiest of the White mountains in New Hampshire. The summit, 
6,293 feet high, is an acre of comparatively level ground, on which stand the 
Mount Washington Summit Hotel, the old Tip-Top House, the engine-house 
of the railway and the United States signal-service observatory. At this sta- 
tion, which is occupied in winter, observers have recorded a temperature of 
59° below zero, while the wind blew with a velocity of 190 miles an hour. 
The range of the thermometer, even in midsummer, is from 30° to 45°. 

The view from Mount Washington is incomparably grand ; but its use as 
being a signal-service station gives it a special interest. The importance of 
the signal service calls for some slight description of it. 

The Signal Service is a military organization which takes note of the de- 
velopment and progress of storms and other atmospheric phenomena, and 



THE UNITED STATES. 261 

which reports the same to the public, when not engaged in the duties of war- 
fare. 

The observers of the signal corps are trained not only in the art and prac- 
tice of military field-signalling, but in the ordinary army drill and rules and 
habits of discipline ; they constitute a part of the regular military establish- 
ment of the nation, always ready for acdve service. Occupied in time of 
peace with scientific work of acknowledged value, the cost of their mainten- 
ance is but a small additional burden upon the country, fully requited by their 
meteorological services to it. Experience has shown that arduous meteoro- 
logical labors such as they perform have not been secured from any civil 
corps. As the signal-service observers must report several times a day to 
the Washington office, each regular report serves in effect as a telegraphic 
roll-call of all the stations spread over the country from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, and from the lakes to the Gulf of Me.\ico, insuring promptitude, vigil- 
ance and steadiness in the entire signal corps. 

The net-work of the signal-service stations now extends over the conti- 
nent from the Adantic to the Pacific coast, and the intervening territory 
from the Gulf (including the West Indies) to the Canadian fronder, and is in 
receipt, by comity of exchange, of daily telegraphic intelligence of the weather 
from the Canadian Dominion and its oudying posts. These reports from 147 
stations of observation are not infrequendy concentrated at the central 
office in the space o{ forty minutes. The stations at which cautionary signals 
are displayed are equipped with flags, lanterns, etc., for exhibiting the cau- 
tionary day or night signals, and also for communicating with vessels of any 
nadonality. 

In addidon to the regular force of military observers, there was trans- 
ferred to the signal service on February 2d, 1874, at the instance of Professor 
Joseph Henry, secretary of the Smithsonian Insdtution, the entire body of 
Smithsonian weather observers in all parts of the United States. 

In orsanizins: the service of simultaneous weather observations, the first 
problem that presented itself was to devise a system of observations which 
would, when mapped accurately, represent the aerial phenomena at the same 
instant of time, and in their actual relations to each other, and thus enable the 
investieator to discover the laws of storms and their rates of movement over 
the earth's surface. Certainly no solid foundation for the science of the 
weather could have been laid in 1870 upon any of the then existing systems. 
The European weather stations at that date, and long after, were engaged in 
making non simultaneous reports ; no two of them, unless they happened to 
be on the same meridian, read off their instruments at the same dme. 

The perfectly simple scheme of simultaneous observations aimed at the 
rescue of weather research from the chaos in which for ages it had lain. Its 
cardinal principle of observation is to gain frequent views of the atmospheric 



262 THE GOLDEN' TREASURY. 

condition and movements over the country as they actually are, and as they 
would be seen, could they, so to speak, be photographed. 

The cautionar)- storm-signals which accompany the " Synopsis and Indica- 
tions," issued to the press three times each day, constitute a very important 
part of the signal-service work, and it was the possibility' of preparing such 
storm-warnings for the benefit of navigation that originally gave the chief 
stimulus to the establishment of a weather bureau. 

The cautionary signals are of two kinds: i. Those premonishing danger- 
ous winds to blow from any direction. 2. Those premonishing off-shore 
winds, likely to drive vessels out to sea. Both kinds are needed by mariners 
as the storm-centres approach or depart from a maritime station. The first, 
distinctively termed the " Cautionary Signal," consists of a red flag with a 
black square in the centre, for warning in the daytime, and a red light by 
niofht. The second, or " Cautionarv Off-Shore Signal," consists of a white 
flag with black square in the centre, shown above a red flag with square black 
centre by day, or a white light shown above a red light by night, indicating 
that, while the storm has not yet passed the station and dangerous winds may 
yet be felt there, they will probably be from a northerly or westerly direction ; 
this second signal, when displayed in the lake region in anticipation of high 
north to west winds, is designated the " Cautionary Xorth-west Signal." The 
display of either signal, however, is always intended to be cautionary, and 
calls for great vigilance on the part of vessels within sight of it. 

LITERATURE. 

The true glory of a nation becomes manifest in its literature, and an ac- 
count of our country would be incomplete did we omit reference to those of 
our nation who have shown the pen to be still mightier than the sword. We 
have already alluded to the first books published in America, and will now 
mention the names of some of our most celebrated authors whose works have 
appeared since the opening of the nineteenth century. 

Joseph Rodman Drake was born in 1795. and died in 1820. He was a 
poet of brilliant promise. He was the author of the patriotic poem, entitled 
"The American Flag." His genius, however, shone pre-eminent in the im- 
ager)- of the exquisite fairy tale, " The Culprit Fay." This poem was written 
in three days, on a wager laid between Cooper the novelist, Halleck the poet, 
and himself 

Fitzgreene Halleck, the friend of Drake, was also born in 1 795. He died 
in 1867; but he wrote little or nothing after 1830, although before that year 
he had become famous. His immortal lyric, " Marco Bozzaris," alone gained 
him literary celebrity. Upon the death of his brother-poet, Drake, he wrote 
a beautiful tribute to his memory-, from which we e.xtract the following lines: 



THE UNITED STATES. 



263 



" Green be tlic turf above thee. 
Friend of my better days ! 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
None named thee but to praise." 

William Cullen Bryant, the Wordsworth of America, a native of Cum- 
mino-ton, Massachusetts, was born in 1794. He resided for over half a cen- 
tury in New York city, where he held the 
position of editor of the Evening Post. A 
lover of nature, the reverence he felt for her 
is seen in strongly marked lines through- 
out his writings. " Thanatopsis " was writ- 
ten and delivered by the author, in his 
nineteenth year, at a college commence- 
ment. His finest poems are "To a Water- 
fowl," " Death of the Flowers," " Forest 
Hymn," "Song of the Stars," "The Plant- 
ing of the Apple-Tree," "Waiting by the 
Gate," "Our Country's Call" and "The 
Flood of Years," the last being written at 
the age of eighty-two. In 1S71 he com- 
pleted a translation of the " Iliad and 
Odyssey " of Homer, upon which he had 
been engaged for six years. He died in 

1878. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, our loved and revered poet-laureate, the 
first American author to be honored with a memorial in Westminster Abbey, 
was born in Portland, Maine, in the year 1807, "in an old square wooden 
house upon the edge of the sea." Graduating from Bowdoin College in 
1825, he was, four years afterwards, elected professor of modern languages 
and literature in his alma mater, which position he relinquished to accept a 
similar one in Harvard in 1835. His duties as a " teacher" were varied by 
occasional travels to Europe, and his writings are thus enriched with legen- 
dary, historic and biographical notes. From 1836 he resided in the " Craigie 
House," which was purchased for him by his father-in-law in 1843, ^^"^^ Y^^'' 
in which he married Miss Appleton. Mary Flora Potter, his first wife, who 
died suddenly at Rotterdam, four years after their marriage, was a daughter 
of Judge Potter, of Portland, very lovely in person and rarely gifted in mind. 

It may be a consolation to poets who receive little for their verses to know 
that the " Psalm of Life " first appeared in the Knickerbocker, and was never 
paid for. 

Longfellow has a fruitful imagination, under the control of the most per- 
fect taste, and a remarkable power of illustrating moods of mind and states 




WILLIAM C. BRYANT. 



264 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



'^%^^ ^* 



of feeling by material forms. He has a great command of beautiful diction, 
and equal skill in the structure of his verse. His poetry is marked by ten- 
derness of feeling, purity of sentiment, elevation of thought and healthiness 
of tone. He understands and can express all the affections of the human 
heart. The happy delight in his poems ; and they fall with soothing and sym- 
pathizing touch upon those who have suffered. His readers are more than 

admirers ; they become 
friends. And over all 
that he has written there 
hangs a beautiful ideal 
light — the atmosphere 
of poetry — which il- 
luminates his page as 
the sunshine does the 
natural landscape. 

Of his leading works 
are " Hyperion," a ro- 
mance ; "The Spanish 
Student, Kavanagh," 
a tale ; " The Golden 
Legend," "Tales of a 
Wayside Inn," " Outre 
Mer," "The Building of 
the Ship," "The Day 
is Done," " Morituri 
Salutamus," "Hia- 

v/atha," " Miles Stan- 
dish," " Plower de 
Luce," " New England 
Tragedies," "Wreck of 
the Hesperus," " Paul 
Revere's Ride," " Chil- 
dren's Hour," "Village Blacksmith," "The Divine Tragedy," "Translation of 
Dante's Divina Commedia," and " Michael Angelo," a drama. 
Longfellow died in 1882. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, M. D., was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
August 29th, 1809, was graduated at Harvard College in 1829, and com- 
menced the practice of medicine in Boston in 1836. He has been for many 
years one of the professors in the medical department of Harvard College, 
and he is understood to be highly skilful, both in the theory and practice of 
his profession. He began to write poetry at quite an early age. His longest 
productions are occasional poems which have been recited before literary so- 




HENRY W. LONOFELLOW. 



THE UNITED STATES. 265 

cieties, and received with very great favor. His style is brilliant, sparkling 
and terse ; and many of his heroic stanzas remind us of the point and con- 
densation of Pope. In his shorter poems he is sometimes grave, and some- 
times gay. When in the former mood, he charms us by his truth and manli- 
ness of feeling, and his sweetness of sentiment ; when in the latter, he de- 
lights us with the glance and play of the wildest wit and the richest humor. 
Everything that he writes is carefully finished, and rests on a basis of sound 
sense and shrewd observation. Dr. Holmes also enjoys high reputation and 
wide popularity as a prose writer. He is the author of "The Autocrat of the 
Breakfast Table," " The Professor at the Breakfast Table " and " Elsie Ven- 
ner," works of fiction which originally appeared in the Atlantic Monthly Mag- 
azine, and of various occasional discourses. 

The following extracts are very characteristic of Holmes : 

" Day hath put on his jacket, and around 
His burning bosom buttoned it with stars." — Evening — by a Tailor. 

" Give us men ! A time like this demands 
Great hearts, strong arms, true faith and willing hands. 
Men, whom the lust of office does not kill ; 
Men, whom the Spoils of office can not buy; 
Men who possess opinions and a will ; 
Men who have honor, men who will not lie ; 
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds, 
Their large professions and their little deeds. 
Wrangle in selfish strife — lo ! Freedom weeps, 
Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps." — C/W l/s Men. 

John Greenleaf Whittier was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1808. 
He has written much in prose and verse ; and his writings are characterized 
by earnestness of tone, high moral purpose and energy of expression. His 
spirit is that of a sincere and fearless reformer ; and his fervent appeals are 
the true utterances of a brave and loving heart. The themes of his poetry 
have been drawn, in a great measure, from the history, traditions, manners 
and scenery of New England; and he has found the elements of poetical in- 
terest among them without doing any violence to truth. He describes nat- 
ural scenery correctly and beautifully; and a vein of genuine tenderness runs 
through his writings. We subjoin a poem of Whittier's, because it is only in 
our country that the verses are applicable. 

"The Poor Voter on Election Day. 



" The proudest now is but my peer. 
The highest not more high ; 
To-day, of all the weary year, 
A king of men am I. 



To-day, alike are great and small, 
The nameless and the known ; 

My palace is the people's hall. 
The ballot-box my throne ! 



266 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



" Who serves to-day upon the list 

Beside the served shall stand ; 
Alike the brown and wrinkled fist, 

The gloved and dainty hand ! 
The rich is level with the poor, 

The weak is strong to-day ; 
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more 

Than homespun frock of gray. 

" To-day let pomp and vain pretence 
My stubborn right abide ; 
I set a plain man's common-sense 
Against the pedant's pride. 



To-day shall simple manhood try 
The strength of gold and land ; 

The wide world has not wealth to buy 
The power in my right hand! 

" While there's a grief to seek redress, 

Or balance to adjust, 
Where weighs our living manhood less 

Than Mammon's vilest dust — 
While there's a right to need my vote, 

A wrong to sweep away, 
Up! clouted knee and ragged coat! 

A man's a man to-day ! " 



Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), "the poet of morbid anatomy," was born 
in Boston, and died in Baltimore, where, after life's fitful fever, he sleeps 
well. The victim of melancholia, a morbid disposition, and an insatiate thirst 
for intoxicants, in rebellion against a world that misunderstood thb man and 
has attempted to falsify the reputation of one with whom " poetry was not a 
purpose, but a passion," his life displayed some irregularities, though it is on 
record by one who, from business association, had every opportunity of es- 
timating his character, that he was " a winning and well-mannered gentle- 
man." His first literary production, "Al Aaraaf and Minor Poems," was un- 
successful. This was followed by "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Payne," 
and the weird and powerful romances that bear the impress of a master-mind, 
of "The Mystery of Mary Roget," "The Murders of the Rue Morgue," "The 
Gold Bug," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and the poems "The Raven," 
"The Bells," " Ulalume," "The Haunted Palace" and "Annabel Lee." 

Suffering induced by Poe's dissipated habits brought his wife to an early 
grave, and he wrote of his loss in some very musical lines : 

" The moon never beams without bringing me dreams 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; 
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes 

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee. 
And so, all the night-tide I lie down by the side 
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride, 

In her sepulchre there by the sea — 

In her tomb by the sounding sea." 

John Howard Payne, the sixth of nine children, was born in New York, 
June 9th, 1792. He came of a family of conspicuous literary ability and of 
gentle breeding. Robert Treat Payne, a signer of the Declaration, and 
Robert Treat Payne, Jr., were of the same family. Miss Dolly Payne, also, 
who became the wife of President Madison, was his kinswoman. 



THE UNITED STATES. 267 

Payne was the author of some noble and lasting literary work in his day — 
one of the grandest of heroic tragedies now played, " Brutus, or the Fall of 
Tarquin," being from his pen. He was both in America and England recog- 
nized as an actor of advancing reputation, and as an author of merit. In one 
of his plays he introduced the song of "Home, sweet Home." The song at 
once became popular. In less than a year 100,000 copies were sold by a 
publisher who did not even put Payne's name on the title-page. As this song 
is, and always will be, a favorite wherever the English languge is spoken, we 
give the words as they appear in Payne's original manuscript. 

" 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, 
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home ! 
A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there, 
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere! 
Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
There's no place like home ! 
, There's no place like home ! 

"An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain ; 
O give me my lowly thatched cottage again ! 
The birds, singing gayly, that came at my call, 
Give me them — and the peace dearer than all ! 

Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 

There's no place like home ! 

There's no place like home ! " 

There are two ol the original verses which are now commonly omitted, 
but as they appear to express the poet's own personal feelings in regard to 
himself as being a wanderer from his native land, we think it well to give 
them here. 

" To us, m despite of the absence of years. 
How sweet the remembrance of home still appears ! 
From allurements abroad, which flatter the eye, 
The unsatisfied heart turns, and says, with a sigh, 

' Home, home — sweet, sweet home, 
There's no place like home — there's no place like home ! ' 

" Your exile is blessed with all fate can bestow. 
But mine has been checkered with many a woe ; 
Yet, though different our fortunes, our thoughts are the same 
And both, as we think of Columbia, exclaim, 

' Home, home — sweet, sweet home, 
There's no place like home — there's no place like home 1 ' " 

Payne was appointed American consul at Tunis in 1842, and sailed thither 
the year following. 



268 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



From Tunis, Payne was recalled in 1845. He was reappointed in 185 1. In 
April he sailed from New York, and he died in Tunis, June, 1852, in his six- 
tieth year. The United States government caused a marble slab to be placed 
at his grave, which bears the following inscription : 

In memory of 

Colonel John Howard Payne, 

Twice Consul of the United States of America to the Kingdom 

of Tunis, 
This stone is placed here by a grateful country. 

The slab has also engraven on it these lines, written by Mr. R. S. Chilton: 

" Sure, when thy gentle spirit fled 

To realms beyond the azure dome. 
With arms outstretched God's angels said, 

' Welcome to heaven, " Home, Sweet Home. 




BIRTHPLACE OF JOHN HOWARD PAYNE 



In 1883, the remains of Payne were brought to Washington, and on June 
9th, the ninety-first anniversary of the poet's birth, were buried with appro- 
priate ceremonies in Oak Hill Cemetery, Georgetown, District of Columbia. 

The following verses were written by Will Carleton, on the removal of the 
remains of John Howard Payne to this country: 

" The banishment was overlong. 

But it will soon be past ; 
The man who wrote Home's sweetest song 

Is coming home at last ! 
For years his poor abode was seen 

In foreign lands alone. 
And waves have thundered loud between 

This sinsier and his own. 



THE UNITED STATES. 269 

But he will soon be journeying 

To friends across the sea ; 
And grander than of any king 

His welcome here shall be." — Coming Home at Last. 

Carleton was born in 1845, and in 1869 graduated at Hillsdale College, 
and then entered the journalistic profession, to which he still belongs. He is 
the author of " Betsey and I are out," " Over the Hills to the Poor- House," and 
other well-known ballads. 

Space will not permit our dwelling upon many other worthy names in 
poetry. Bayard Taylor was alike eminent as a poet, novelist, and traveller. 
Read won fame both with brush and pen. Boker is a lyric and dramatic 
writer of great excellence, and has represented the United States at Constan- 
tinople and St. Petersburg. Bret Harte has given us some able dialect 
poetry, and Walt Whitman has shown remarkable originality. Nor ought 
we to omit Alice Carey, who was born in 1820 and died in 1 871, and who was 
the greatest female genius that our country has produced, was born at Mount 
Healthy, near Cincinnati, and died at her home in New York City. Contribut- 
ing verses to the Cincinnati press at the age of eighteen, which were well 
received, she first attracted attention by a series of sketches of rural life. 
Removing with her sister Phoebe (18 24-1 871) to New York, the two 
issued a volume of poems. She wrote " Married, not Mated," and " Holly- 
wood," novels; "Pictures of Country Life," "The Bridal Veil," "Thanks- 
giving," " Krumley," " The Bishop's Son." and " Snow Berries." 

Phoebe Carey wrote many beautiful poems, such as " Nearer Home," and, 
amono- other amusinsf parodies, one on the " Psalm of Life." 

If we turn to prose we will find names equal in ability to those mentioned 
in poetry. 

Washington Irving, the most popular of American authors, and one of the 
most popular writers in the English language during his time, was born in 
New York, April 8th, 1783, and died November 28th, 1859. His numerous 
works are too well known to need enumeration; and his countrymen are so 
familiar with the graces of his style and the charm of his delightful genius, 
that any extended criticism would be superfluous. His writings are remark- 
able for their combination of rich and original humor with great refinement 
of feeling and delicacy of sentiment. His humor is unstained by coarseness, 
and his sentiment is neither mawkish nor morbid. His style is carefully 
finished, and in his most elaborate productions the uniform music of his ca- 
dences approaches monotony. He is an accurate observer, and his descrip- 
tions are correct, animated and beautiful. In his biographical and historical 
works his style is flowing, easy and transparent. His personal character was 
affectionate and amiable, and these traits penetrate his writings and constitute 
no small portion of their charm. Few writers have ever awakened in their 



270 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

readers a stronger personal interest than Irving; and the sternest critic could 
not deal harshly with an author who showed himself to be so gentle and kindly 
a man. 

James Fennimore Cooper, the author of " The Spy," " The Pilot," 
"Leather-stocking Tales," etc., was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 
15th of December, 1789. The distinguished novelist was also author of the 
"History of the Navy of the United States." He died in 185 1. 

William Ellery Channing was born at Newport, Rhode Island, April 7th, 
1780, was graduated at Harvard College in 1798, and died October 2d, 1842. 

Dr. Channing's style is admirably suited for the exposition of moral and 
spiritual truth. It is rich, flowing and perspicuous ; even its diffuseness, which 
is its obvious literary defect, is no disadvantage in this aspect. There is a 
persuasive charm over all his writings, flowing from his earnestness of pur- 
pose, his deep love of humanity, his glowing hopes and his fervent religious 
faith. 

William Hickling Prescott was born in Salem, Massachusetts, May 4th, 
1796, and died in Boston, January 28th, 1859. His grandfather was Colonel 
William Prescott, who commanded in the redoubt at Bunker Hill. He is the 
author of four historical works — "The History of the Reign of Ferdinand 
and Isabella," "The History of the Conquest of Mexico," " The History of 
the Conquest of Peru" and "The History of the Reign of Philip the 
Second ; " which last was left unfinished at the time of his death. These are 
all productions of great merit, and have received the highest commendations 
at home and abroad. Among their most conspicuous excellences may be men- 
tioned their thoroughness of investigation and research. Mr. Prescott ex- 
amined, with untiring industry, all possible sources of information, whether in 
print or in manuscript, which could throw light upon the subjects of which he 
treated. This was the more honorable to him, as, in consequence of an acci- 
dent in college, he was deprived, to a considerable degree, of the use of his 
eyes, and was constandy obliged to make use of the sight of others in prose- 
cuting his studies. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord, was born in Boston, in 1803, 
graduated at Harvard in 1821, taught for a short time, ministered thought 
to a congregation for three years in his native city, and then retired to the 
classic town, where he lived till the end, only varying the studious retirement 
of his life by lecturing in this country and abroad. His writings are observ- 
ant and speculative ; display a quaintness of language and a philosophic 
taste and power that has made a vivid impre"ssion upon the literature of the 
nineteenth century. He died in 1882. 

Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24th, 181 3, 
graduated at Amherst College in 1834, studied theology under his father, the 
Rev. Lyman Beecher, and from 1847 until his death (March 8th, 1887) was 



THE UNITED STATES. 271 

pastor of the Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, New York. As a lecturer he 
enjoyed an unrivalled popularity, earned by the happy combination of humor, 
pathos, earnestness and genial sympathy with humanity, which his discourses 
present. He was a man of great energy of temperament, fervendy opposed 
to every form of oppression and injustice, and with a poet's love of nature. 
His style was rich, glowing and abundant. 

Harriet Beecher Stowe was born at Litciifield, Connecticut, in 1812; but 
resided for several years, with her husband. Professor Stowe, at Mandarin, 
on the St. John's river, Florida. Her fame was established by the pub- 
lication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin " (in 1852), the most widely read book ever 
written in America. 

In George Bancroft and John Lothrop Modey we have historians whose 
reputation worthily reaches wherever the English language is read. 

THE FINE ARTS. 

In the generation which immediately succeeded the American Revolution, 
there was very litde devotion to art. The adjustment of commercial and po- 
litical relations at home and abroad, naturally required all the energies of the 
people. In the beginning of this century, however, the art principle began to 
develop itself side by side with literature. Still at no time was there a total 
lack of tendency towards pictorial representation. 

If we take into account all the drawbacks incident to a new country 
which the study of art necessarily meets with, we will find that its progress in 
the United States has been wonderfully rapid. There are branches of art 
unknown in ancient times, which have attained remarkable development with- 
in the present century. And in engraving, and the illustration of books and 
periodicals, the palm of superiority has been freely conceded to American ar- 
tists by the critics in the art centres of the old world. Indeed, it is those 
branches of pictorial art which conduce to the education, the comfort and 
even luxury of universal mankind, which it has been the mission of the great 
Republic to bring to perfection, as it has been in corresponding branches of 
science and mechanical invention. Its work in art as in science has been for 
the good of the many, and not, as in the old world, mainly for the benefit of 
the few, as may be seen in the strides it has made in chromolithography, which 
has made the works of the world's most eminent artists familiar to the com- 
monest and poorest. 

But even in the arts of painting and sculpture America has been produc- 
tive of great names. It will be sufficient to mention the names of West, 
Allston, Church, Leslie,^ Weir, Bierstadt, Cole, Rothermel, Hamilton and 
Moran in painting; Greenough, Powers and Harriet Hosmer in sculpture, as 
evidence that the highest order of genius in art can exist side by side with 
the most unwearied industry in commerce and manufactures. 



272 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

In the kindred art of music, the United States has also been a benefactor 
to the world. The compositions of Bliss and Sankey in sacred music ; and of 
Stephen Foster in his plaintive negro melodies, are the delight of many homes 
in the old world, as well as homes in the New. 

But it is inventive talent by which Americans are most distinguished. 
The inventive genius which the subduing of a great, wild continent first called 
into action has been only heightened by prosperity. The soil of South Africa, 
Australia and Japan is turned by American plows, and their harvests are 
gathered by American mowers and reapers ; fires in European cities are ex- 
tinguished by American steam fire-engines; American palace-cars roll over 
European railways; and American steam-boats ply on the .Rhine, the Danube, 
and tlie Bbsphorus. Great London newspapers are printed on the type-re- 
volving press invented by Richard Hoe, of New York. : 

Viewing then the rapid progress, vast extent, and present prosperity of 
our country, well might our poet-laureate Longfellow sing: 

" Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 
Humanity, with all its fears, 
With all the hopes of future j'ears, 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
We know what Master laid thy keel. 
What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat 
In what a forge, and what a heat, 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope. 

" Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee. 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
Are all with thee — are all with thee." 




GRAND CANAL, VENICE. 



ITALY. 




I HE limits of the Italian peninsula have been most distinctly 
traced by nature. The Alps, which bound it on the north, 
from the promontories of Liguria to the mountainous penin- 
sula of Istria, present themselves like a huge wall, the only 
breaches in which are formed by passes situated high up in 
the zones of pines, pastures, or eternal snows. Its delightful 
climate, beauteous skies and fertile fields distinguish it in a 
marked manner from countries lying beyond the Alps. 

For nearly two thousand years Italy remained the centre of the civilized 
world. Two of the greatest events in history, the uniting of the Mediterra- 
nean world under the laws of Rome, and at a later age the regeneration of 
the human mind, to which the term "renaissance" has been given, originated 
in Italy. 

There is no other country in the world which can boast of an equal num- 
ber of cities remarkable on account of their buildings, statues, paintings and 
decorations of every kind. There are provinces where every village, every 
group of houses even, delights the eye either by a fresco painting or a work 
of the sculptor's chisel, a bold staircase or picturesque balcony. 

Italy owes the rank it has held for more than two thousand years not 
18 (273) 



274 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

merely to its monuments and works of art, which attract students from the 
extremities of the earth, but also to its historical associations. Every fortress, 
every country house, marks the site of some ancient citadel, or of the villa of 
a Roman patrician ; churches have replaced the ancient temples, and though 
the religious rites have changed, the altars of trods and saints arise anew on 
the spots consecrated of old. 

The Italian is the most richly endowed of all the European nations. When 
we look to the splendid achievements of this race in all its subdivisions — to the 
artists, authors, soldiers, natural philosophers, and civil engineers, which the 
peninsula has produced — we other peoples are compelled to bow our heads 
before them in every department of intellectual exertion. 

ROME. 

Rome, the most celebrated of European cities, famous in both ancient and 
modern history, formerly for being the most powerful nation of antiquity, and 
afterward the ecclesiastical capital of Christendom and the residence of the 
pope, and since 1871 the capital of United Italy and the residence of the king, 
is situated on both banks of the Tiber, about sixteen miles from its mouth. 

The earliest history of Rome is legendary, or to some extent fabulous, 
with a basis of historical truth. It is said that Rhea Silvia, a female de- 
scendant of .(^neas, one of the Trojan heroes, was compelled by her uncle to 
become a vestal virgin, whereby she was obliged to remain unmarried. But 
by the god Mars she became the mother of twin sons, Romulus and Remus. 
Thereupon her uncle caused her to be killed, and her infants to be thrown 
into the river Tiber. The river at the time happened to have overflowed its 
banks, so that after a short time, when the waters subsided, the basket con- 
taining the babes remained standing on dry land. There they were suckled 
by a she-wolf and fed by a woodpecker, until they were found by a shepherd, 
who took them to his wife. 

When the boys had grown up to manhood they resolved to build a town 
near the spot where they had been saved. When the new town was finished, 
a dispute arose as to which of the two brothers should give it its name ; from 
words it came to blows, and Romulus slew his brother. In order to increase 
the number of inhabitants, Romulus opened an asylum, inviting all to 
come and settle in the new place. Vagabonds of every description came, and 
all were welcome. But as there were no women among them, the population 
would soon have died out, and in order to prevent this Romulus applied to 
the neighboring communities of Latins and Sabines to obtain wives for his 
subjects. This request was scornfully rejected, and Romulus then resolved to 
obtain by a cunning device what had been refused to his fair demand. He 
invited the neighboring tribes to a festival to be celebrated in honor of the god 
Neptune; and while the strangers were witnessing the games, the Romans 



ITALY. 275 

suddenly seized their daughters and carried them by force to their homes. 
To avenge this outrage, the Latins and Sabines took up arms against Rome. 
Tiie former were easily defeated, but during the heat of the fight with the Sa- 
bines, the Sabine women threw themselves between the combatants, imploring 
them to desist from destroying one another, and declared themselves willing 
to remain with their new husbands. 

After the death of Romulus, a whole year passed away without a succes- 
sor being elected, and in the meantime the government was conducted by the 
senate. At length the Ramnes or Romans chose from among the Sabines 
Numa Pompilius, of Cures, a man renowned for his piety and wisdom. The 
legend represents him as the founder of all the great religious institutions, 
just as Romulus is described as the author of the political organization of the 
state. Numa's reign was a period of uninterrupted peace, during which the 
people were engaged in the peaceful pursuit ot agriculture and in the worship 
of the gods. In all he did the king was supported by the counsels of the 
nymph Egeria, with whom he had interviews in a sacred grove near Aricia. 

After the death of Numa Pompilius the Romans chose TulUis Hostilius for 
their king. His reign, extending from b. c. 672 to 640, is described as the 
very opposite of that of Numa, for he is said to have neglected the worship 
of the gods and to have been engaged in perpetual wars with his neighbors. 
The first of these wars was waged against Alba Longa, in consequence of 
certain acts of violence for which reparation was refused by that city. The 
contest between the two little states remained for a long time undecided, until 
at length the commanders arranged that the dispute should be determined by 
a combat of three Roman brothers, called the Horatii, with three Alban 
brothers called the Curiatii, who happened to be serving in their respective 
armies ; and it was agreed that the conquering party should rule over the 
vanquished. When the three champions of each party met, two of the Ho- 
ratii were killed, while all the three Curiatii were indeed wounded, but still 
able to fight. The surviving Horatius then took to flicjht, and the three Curi- 
atii pursued him at such intervals as their wounds permitted. This was what 
Horatius had foreseen, and turning round, he slew them one after another. It 
was thus decided that Rome should rule over Alba. When the Romans re- 
turned home in triumph, Horatius met his sister, who burst into tears and lam- 
entations, when she saw among the spoils won by her brother a garment 
she had woven with her own hands for one of the Curiatii, to whom she had 
been betrothed. Horatius, enraged at her conduct on such an occasion, ran 
her through with his sword. For this outrage he was tried and sentenced to 
death ; but he availed himself of his right to appeal to the people, who, 
moved by the recollection of what he had done for his country, and by the 
entreaties of his father, who by his death would have been left childless, ac- 
quitted him. 



276 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The kingly government of Rome came to an end with the expulsion of 
Lucius Tarquin, in 510 b. c. 

During the latter part of his reign, Tarquin was involved in a war with 
Ardea, a fortified town of the Rutulians, who had probably refused to ac- 
knowledge the supremacy of Rome. The town accordingly was besieged, 
but with litde success ; and one day, while the king's sons and their cousin, 
Collatinus, were feasting in their tents and discussing the virtues of their 
wives, it was arranged that the three should go home unexpectedly by night, 
to see how the princesses were spending their time. The wives of the two 
brothers were found at Rome, revelling at a luxurious banquet; but when 
they came to Collatia, they found Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, engaged in 
domestic occupations with her maid-servants. She accordingly was acknowl- 
edged to be the best of the three ; but in her humble occupation she appeared 
so lovely and beautiful, that a few days later Sextus Tarquin, one of the 
princes, returned to Collatia, where, as a kinsman, he was hospitably received. 
But in the dead of night he entered her chamber, and threatened to expose 
her name to everlasting shame, if she refused to gratify his lust. By intimi- 
dation he gained his end. But on the following morning Lucretia sent for her 
father and husband, who came accompanied by Publius Valerius and Lucius 
Junius Brutus. To these four men Lucretia revealed the crime committed 
upon her, and having called upon them to avenge the wrong, plunged a dag- 
ger into her own breast. Brutus, throwing off the mask of idiocy, which had 
been assumed by him in order to escape the danger of being put to death, a 
fate which had befallen others, dnjw the dagger from the wound, and vowed 
•destruction to the royal house of the Tarquins. The three others took the 
same oath. Brutus then gained over the people and the army of Rome, and 
drove out the Tarquins. 

In the first year of the republic a conspiracy was formed among a num- 
ber of young patricians for the purpose of restoring the exiled monarch; they 
•were joined even by the sons of Brutus. When it was found out, the guilty 
were put to death, and Brutus, with a sternness peculiarly characteristic of a 
Roman, ordered his own sons to be executed. 

The fall of Tarquin has been the subject of many poems and dramatic 
works. Shakespeare made " The Rape of Lucrece " the subject of his longest 
poem. And our own poet, John Howard Payne, the author of " Home, Sweet 
Home," has, in his tragedy entided "Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin," sur- 
passed all other authors who have treated dramatically of the same subject. 

Tarquin afterwards went and obtained the assistance of Porsenna, King 
of Etruria, who marched against Rome and pitched his camp on the right 
bank of the Tiber. On one occasion, it is said, the Romans crossed the Tiber 
with the intention of driving the enemy from his strong-hold, but were re- 
pulsed and returned to the city ; and the enemy would have pursued them 



278 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

across the river, had not Horatius Codes, a bold and powerful Roman, who 
was guarding the wooden bridge with two comrades, kept the whole hostile 
army at bay, while his countrymen were busily engaged in breaking down the 
bridg-e. He is even said to have dismissed his two comrades and alone to 
have resisted the whole army until the bridge was demolished. He then 
threw himself into the river, and safely swam across, amid showers of darts 
from the Etruscans. 

Macaulay, in his " Lays of Ancient Rome," has, in vigorous verse, vividly 
depicted this fight : 

" Then out spake brave Horatius, the captain of the gate: 
' To every man upon this earth death cometh, soon or late. 
Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, with all the speed ye may; 
I, with two more to help me, will hold the foe in play. 

" ' In yon straight path a thousand may well be stopped by three. 
Now, who will stand on either hand, and keep the bridge with me?' 
Then out spake Spurius Lartius, a Ramnian proud was he : 
' Lo ! I will stand at thy right hand, and keep the bridge with thee.' 

"And out spake strong Herminius, of Titan blood was he : 
' I will abide on thy left side, and keep the bridge with thee.' 
' Horatius,' quoth the Consul, ' as thou sayest, so let it be.' 
And straight against that great array forth went the dauntless three." 

In the year b. c. 509, Rome concluded a commercial treaty with the wealthy 
city of Carthage, a Phoenician colony on the north coast of Africa. The same 
treaty had been twice before renewed, and the relation between the two re- 
publics had always been of an amicable kind, but the Carthaginians seem to 
have become apprehensive of the growing power of Rome. Disputes arose 
between the two powers, and at length Rome declared war against Carthage, 
and finally compelled it to sue for peace, which was only granted on most hu- 
miliating conditions. This was called the First Punic War. 

The Second Punic War arose by Hannibal, a young man of nineteen, lay- 
ing siege to Saguntum, a city of Spain in alliance with Rome. The Romans 
remonstrated, but in vain, and war was the consequence. Saguntum was de- 
stroyed, and the inhabitants put to the sword. The contest was now between 
Rome and Hannibal. Hannibal, with a force of 90,000 foot, 12,000 horse and 
thirty-seven elephants, began his memorable march across the Alps. When 
he descended on the south side, his forces were reduced to 20,000 foot and 
6,000 horse. He then met two Roman armies, and defeated them both. In 
the following spring he met, at Lake Thrasimenus, the Roman consul Flamin- 
ius, who was defeated and slain. In this battle 15,000 Romans perished. At 
length the Romans prepared to crush their terrible enemy with one blow. 
They proceeded to Apulia with a large army of 80,000 foot and 6,000 horse, 



ITALY. 279 

and pitched their camp near the little town of Cannx. Here Hannibal again 
totally defeated the Romans, leaving- 47,000 of them dead on the field. But 
the support necessary for Hannibal to carry on his career of victory to a suc- 
cessful issue was denied him, and at Zama he was defeated by Scipio; and the 
war was decided in favor of Rome. Hannibal returned to Carthag-e and did 
all he could to repair the losses which his country had sustained. But the 
fear and enmity of Rome, and the jealousy of many of his own countrymen, 
forced Hannibal to quit his own country as an exile. He took refuge with 
Antiochus, King of Syria, who made war against Rome, but through not fol- 
lowing the advice of Hannibal was easily defeated. Hannibal then sought the 
protection of Prusius, King of Bithynia ; but here, too, the Romans pursued 
him, for they did not feel safe whilst he lived ; and Hannibal, seeing that Pru- 
sius could protect him no longer, put an end to his life by poison. 

Forty years after the death of Hannibal the Romans, seeing that Carthage 
was recovering to some extent its former prosperity, became bent on destroy- 
ing it. The Carthaginians were driven to desperation, and, although they suf- 
fered from the most terrible famine, they defended every inch of ground, even 
after the enemy had entered the city. The battle which raged in the streets 
lasted for six days, after which the fury of the invaders and a fearful confla- 
gration changed the once proud mistress of the Mediterranean into a heap of 
ruins. Fifty thousand of its inhabitants who escaped from the massacre were 
sold as slaves ; and Scipio, like his great namesake, was honored with the sur- 
name of Africanus. The territory of Carthage was changed into a Roman 
province under the name of Africa, and a curse was pronounced upon the site 
of the ancient city, so that it should never be rebuilt. 

Wars, both foreign and domestic, now followed each other in rapid suc- 
cession. The Cimbri and Teutons, wild northern tribes, were defeated by the 
Roman general Marius. Civil war then arose between Marius and Sulla, in 
which more than 100,000 lives were sacrificed. In this, Sulla was victorious. 
Pompey, a young partisan of Sulla, gained many victories and, upon the death 
of Sulla, became the most popular man in Rome. 

Ever since the time of Marius and Sulla, the leading object of the men in 
power was to gain popularity at any cost, and that not with a view to benefit 
their country, but to gratify their own ambition and avarice. Hence the his- 
tory of this period, down to the establishment of the monarchy, is little more 
than the personal history of men who endeavored to outdo one another. By 
far the most eminent and most talented among them was Caius Julius Caesar, 
born in b. c. 100, and belonging to one of the most ancient patrician families. 
He was fast rising in popular favor at the time when Pompey was quiedy en- 
joying the fruits of his victories. 

Julius Caisar was a man of the highest culture, and was indefatigable in 
everything that he undertook. He was equally great as an orator, an author. 



280 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

a general and a statesman. He has been called " the greatest man in all 
history ; " and Shakespeare styles him 

" The foremost man of all this world." 

Caesar was of slender build, fair, of a delicate constitution, and subject to 
violent headaches and epileptic fits. He did not, however make these disor- 
ders a pretence for indulging himself. On the contrary, he sought in war a 
remedy for his infirmities, endeavoring to strengthen his constitution by long 
marches, and by simple diet. Thus he contended with his distemper and for- 
tified himself aorainst its attacks. 

He was a good horseman, and brought that exercise to such perfection by 
practice that he could sit a horse at full speed with his hands behind him. He 
also accustomed himself to dictate letters as he rode on horseback, and found 
sufficient employment for two or more secretaries at once. 

As an evidence of his naturally ambitious temperament, a remark made 
by Caesar whilst coming to a little town near the Alps may be given. His 
friends, jocularly, took occasion to say, " Can there be any disputes for offices 
here ? " upon which Caesar answered, " I had rather be the first man here, than 
the second in Rome." 

He seemed totally without fear. On one occasion, when some of his 
soldiers became panic-stricken, and were fleeing from the enemy, he took one 
by the neck, and making him face about, said, 'You are taking the wrong 
road ; this is the way towards the enemy." 

When Caesar was' at war with Egypt, its princess, Cleopatra, with a friend 
named Apollodorus, got into a small boat, and in the dusk of the evening 
made for the palace which Caesar had captured. As she saw it difficult to en- 
ter undiscovered, she rolled herself up in a carpet; Apollodorus tied her up 
at full length, like a bale of goods, and carried her in at the gates to Caesar. 
This strategem of hers, which was a strong proof of her wit and ingenuity, is 
said to have opened her the way to Caesar's heart ; and he insisted that she 
should reign with him. 

After this, Pharnaces, a king of Pontus, stirred up all the kings and te- 
trarchs of Asia against the Romans. Caesar defeated them in a great batde, 
and ruined their whole army. In the account he gave one of his friends in 
Rome of the rapidity with which he gained his victory, he made use of only 
three words, " I came, I saw, I conquered." 

Caesar having conquered all the world then known to Rome, was told by 
the senate that he must now disband his forces. This Caesar refused to do, 
and crossing the Rubicon, a river dividing Gaul from Italy, he marched towards 
Rome. A Roman army, under Pompey, was sent against him. Pompey was 
completely defeated, and fled to Egypt, where he was murdered. 

Caesar was now virtually the sole ruler of the Roman empire, and on his 




STATUE OF JULIUS CAESAR. 



1381 J 



282 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

return from Africa he silenced all fears and apprehensions by proclaiming a 
general amnesty, and by assuring his fellow-citizens that his sole object was 
to restore peace and order. He celebrated four triumphs, and entertained 
both soldiers and citizens with every kind of public amusement. During his 
stay at Rome, in b. c. 46, he introduced his celebrated reform of the calendar, 
which, through the ignorance or caprice of the pagan pontiffs, had fallen into the 
greatest disorder. Ceesar not only remedied the existing evil, but made regu- 
lations to prevent its recurrence; and the calendar, as reformed by him, re- 
mained in use until a. d. 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII. introduced another 
reformed calendar, which is still in use. 

Whilst in Rome a conspiracy was formed against him. He was warned in 
regard to it, but with characteristic indifference, for he never feared death, he 
paid no attention to the warning. A soothsayer also forewarned him of a 
great danger which threatened him on the ides of March, and when the day 
was come, as he was going to the senate-house, he called to the soothsayer, 
and said, laughing, " The ides of March are come ; " to which he answered 
sofdy, "Yes ; but they are not gone." 

When Caesar entered the house, the senate rose to do him honor, but the 
conspirators drew their swords and gathered round him in such a manner 
that, whatever way he turned, he saw nothing but steel gleaming in his face, 
and met nothing but wounds. The other senators were seized with conster- 
nation and horror, insomuch that they durst neither fly nor assist, nor even 
utter a word. Caesar, seeing himself doomed, drew his robe over his face, 
and yielded to his fate. 

The assassination was soon followed by civil war. Mark Antony, a friend 
of Caesar, and Octavius, a son of Caesar's niece, made war against the assassins 
Brutus and Cassius, and defeated them upon the plains of Philippi. These 
conspirators afterwards committed suicide by falling upon their own swords. 

Antony and Octavius were now the chief rulers in the Roman empire. 
Antony married Octavia, the sister of Octavius, but afterwards divorced and 
left her for Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Octavius then declared war against 
Egypt and defeated Antony and Cleopatra, who then put an end to their own 
existence. 

When Octavius, in b. c. 39, returned from the East, the senate and the 
people vied with each other in their servility and adulation. Two years later 
he received the tide of Augustus, that is, the Venerable, a tide which was af- 
terwards assumed by all the Roman emperors. 

fThe most important event which marks the reign of Augustus is the birth 
of Christ. The reign of Augustus, or more correctly, the period from the 
death of Sulla to that of Augustus, forms the golden age of Roman literature. 
The Latin language then reached its highest devdopment, and the greatest 
poets, orators and historians belong to that period./ 



ITALY. 283 

In the first century of the Christian era, Jerusalem was besieged by the 
Romans ; and history can show nothing to match the horrors of that siege, 
or the deadly work produced by war and famine. Mothers snatched the 
morsels from their children's lips. The robbers broke open every shut door 
in search of food, and tortured most horribly all who were thought to have a 
hidden store. Gaunt men, who had crept beyond the walls by night to gather 
a few wild herbs, were often robbed by these wretches of the poor handful of 
green leaves for which they had risked their lives. Yet, in spite of this, the 
starving people went out into the valleys in such numbers that the Romans 
caught them at the rate of 500 a day, and crucified them before the walls, un- 
til there was no room to plant and no wood to make another cross. 

The siege lasted 134 days, during which 1,100,000 Jews perished, and 
97,000 were taken captive. Some were kept to grace the Roman triumph ; 
some were sent to toil in the mines of Egypt ; some fought in provincial 
theatres with gladiators and wild beasts ; those under seventeen were sold as 
slaves. 

Eleven persecutions of the Christians — some fiercer, others fainter — 
marked the dying struggles of the many-headed monster, Paganism. More 
than three centuries were filled with the sound and sorrows of the great con- 
flict. 

In the tenth year of the brutal Nero's reign the first great persecution of 
Christians took place. A fire, such as never had burned before, consumed 
nearly the whole city of Rome ; and men said that the emperor's own hand 
had kindled the flames out of mere wicked sport, and that, while the blazing 
city was filled with shrieks of pain and terror, he sat calmly looking on and 
singing verses on the burning of Troy to the music of his lyre. 

This story finding ready acceptance among the homeless and beggared 
people, the tyrant strove, by inflicting tortures on the Christians, to turn the 
suspicion from himself upon them. On the pretence that they were guilty of 
the atrocious crime, he crucified many ; some, covered with the skins of wild 
beasts, were worried to death by dogs in the theatres ; tender girls and gray- 
haired men were torn by tigers, or hacked with the swords of gladiators. But 
the worst sight was seen in the gardens of Nero, where chariot races were 
held by night, in which the emperor himself, dressed as a common driver, 
whipped his horses round the goal. There stood poor men and women of 
the Christian faith, their clothes smeared with pitch, or other combustible, all 
blazing as torches to throw light on the sport of the imperial demon. In the 
wider persecutions that followed, for this one was chiefly confined to Rome, 
there was perhaps, no scene of equal horror. 

During these persecutions the Christians took refuge in the catacombs or 
underground caves. These had been used, at first, simply as places of wor- 
ship and sepulture. But now an entire change in their construction took 



284 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

place. They became obviously designed for the purposes of safety and con- 
cealment. Centuries after this period, during the short and tumultuous 
career of Cola di Rienzi, the catacombs were the scenes of the plots and 
counterplots of that troublous time; and were also used as places of refuge 
and concealment. 

Rienzi, the son of an innkeeper and a washerwoman, was, in early youth, 
deeply read in the great masters of the Latin tongue. Cicero and Livy were 
his special favorites. His classic enthusiasm gained for him the friendship of 
Petrarch. He was very poor, reduced to a single coat, when he received the 
post of apostolic notary, which rescued him from poverty. The feuds of the 
noble families, Colonna, Orsini and Savelli, filled the streets with daily riot 
and bloodshed. Rienzi, whose fiery eloquence made him a man of mark in 
Rome, might often be seen in the centre of an eagerly attentive crowd, inter- 
preting the words of some old brass or marble tablet, and dwelling fondly on 
the ancient glories of senate and people. Encouraged by the flashes of pa- 
triotic fire which from time to time burst from the enslaved people, he formed 
the bold design of seizing the helm of the state. 

Rienzi drove out the nobles from Rome, and was elected tribune. Italy 
flourished under his government; but his rule was brief The nobles, se- 
cretly gathering strength, rose in arms against him ; whilst the citizens seeing 
his inability to cope with the nobles also revolted. His palace was stormed 
and burnt, and he himself stabbed to death. 

The career of Rienzi has been made the subject of one of Bulwer's finest 
romances ; and the reader will find therein a picture of Italy in mediaeval 
times, more faithful than that usually given in professed history. Rienzi has 
also been made the subject of a beautiful tragedy by Miss Mitford. Byron 
thus writes of the great patriot : 

" Then turn we to our latest tribune's name, 
From her ten thousand tyrants turn to thee, 
Redeemer of dark centuries of shame — 
The friend of Petrarch — hope of Italy — 
Rienzi ! last of Romans ! " 

No city in the world can show greater objects of interest than are to be 
found in Rome. The remains of all the epochs of civilization of which we 
have any knowledge, can be found there within a day's ride. In its galleries 
is to be found the most of what we have of antique art. 

The greatest of antique structures in Italy is the Colosseum. It was built in 
honor of Titus, and it is said that 60,000 Jews were engaged on it ten years. In 
the middle ages it was a feudal fortress for a long time, and finally a quarry from 
which were built churches and palaces, until by its consecration as holy ground, 
on account of the number of martyrs supposed to have been immolated there, 




(285) 



286 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

further ravage was stopped. The subsequent repairs, though greatly inter- 
fering with its picturesqueness, will doubtless have the effect of preserving 
the remainder for centuries more. It is said to have given seats to 87,000 
spectators, and was inaugurated a. d. 81, the same year in which Titus died, 
on which occasion 5,000 wild animals and 10,000 captives were slain. The in- 
auguration lasted 100 days. 

St. Peter's, the great marvel of Christian Rome, is built on or near the 
place where stood the Temple of Jupiter Vaticanus, so called because it was 
the place where the vates, or augurs, made their auguries from the victims 
sacrificed, and from which is derived the name borne by the papal palace of 
the Vatican. The first structure on this site was an oratory erected in a. d. 
90 to Indicate the place where St. Peter was buried. Constantine the Great 
erected a basilica on the spot. The present structure was commenced by 
Julius II. about 1503, under the direction of Bramanti ; but the present form 
of the basilica is due more to Michael Angelo than to any other of the many 
architects employed on it. 

The Vatican is the capitol of modern Rome, and its gallery of sculpture 
the most complete and valuable in existence. It is three stories high, and 
comprises an infinite number of saloons, galleries, corridors, chapels, a library 
of 100,000 volumes, a museum which is immense, twenty courts, eight grand 
stairways and 200 small ones. It is far superior to any palace in the world in 
history, being the most ancient and decidedly the most celebrated of all the 
papal palaces, composed of a mass of buildings erected by many different popes, 
covering a space 1,200 feet in length and 1,000 in breadth. It is the winter 
residence of the pope. 

In the Vatican are to be found the greatest works of Raphael, who is uni- 
versally acknowledged to be the greatest painter that has ever lived. The 
"Transfiguration " was the last and greatest painting of the immortal master, 
painted for the cathedral of Narbonne by order of Cardinal Giulio de' 
Medici, afterward Clement VII. For many years the picture was preserved 
in the church of St. Pietro, in Montorio, from which the French had it re- 
moved to Paris. In 1815, on its return, it was placed in the Vatican. The 
idea throughout the piece seems to express the miseries of human life, and 
lead those who are afflicted to look to heaven for comfort and relief The 
upper portion of the composition represents Mount Tabor; on the ground 
the three apostles are lying, affected by the supernatural light which proceeds 
from the divinity of Christ, who, accompanied by Moses and Elijah, is floating 
in the air. On one side are nine apostles ; a multitude of people on the 
other, bringing to them a demoniac boy whose limbs are dreadfully convulsed, 
which produces on every countenance an expression of terror. Two of the 
apostles point toward heaven. The figures on the mount of the two prophets 
and the three disciples are magnificently executed, while the figure of the 



ITALY. 



287 



Saviour is of surpassing loveliness. Before Raphael had finished the paint- 
ing, he was himself called away to the land of the blessed, to behold in reality 
the spiritual beings which inspiration had led him to portray in such a lovely 
manner. He was but thirty-seven ; and while his body lay in state his last 
work was suspended over the couch, and was carried before him at his funeral 
while yet the last traces of his master-hand were wet upon the canvas. 




RAPHAEL. 



" And when all beheld 
Him where he lay, how changed from yesterday — 
Him in that hour cut off, and at his head 
Ills last great work; when, entering in, they look'd 



288 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Now on the dead, then on that masterpiece ; ' 
Now on his face, hfeless and colorless. 
Then on those forms divine that lived and breathed 
And would live on for ages — all were moved, 
And sighs burst forth, and loudest lamentations." 

FLORENCE, 

To Florence has been awarded the title of the fairest city of the earth. 
Who can doubt it, situated as it is in the rich valley of the Arno, surrounded 
by beauties of nature and of art, immortalized by Byron and Rogers, and re- 
vered as the birthplace of Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, Galileo, Michael Angelo, 
Leonardo da Vinci, Benvenuto Cellini, and Andrea del Sarto? What beautiful 
recollections of the past must naturally be awakened in the appreciative mind 
while tarrying in a spot which has given birth to such noble contributors to 
poetry and the arts ? Beautiful gardens adorned with statues, vases, foun- 
tains, and other decorations, as well as the open squares or piazzas, continually 
attract the eye of the visitor ; and the palaces, which are very numerous, each 
containing rare paintings and sculptures, form the principal objects of interest 
in this delightful city, which is the pride of Tuscany. The climate of Florence 
is delightful, varying but thirty degrees from summer to winter. 

/The " Divine Comedy " of Dante was the first great Christian poem ; and 
it has been called one of the " landmarks of history.'V The subject or plot 
may be thus stated : 

Dante, astray in a gloomy wood and beset by wild beasts, is rescued by 
the shade of the poet Virgil, who has left his proper abode in a painless region 
of hell for the purpose of guiding Dante through the world of lost souls, at 
the request of Beatrice, whom Dante had known in his youth, but who is now 
an inhabitant of heaven. Over hell-gate an awful inscription is placed: 

" Through me you pass into the city of woe; 

Through me you pass eternal woes to prove ; 
Through me among the blasted race you go. 

Twas Justice did my most high Author move, 
And I have been the work of Power divine. 

Of supreme Wisdom, and of primal Love. 
No creature has an elder date than mine, 

Unless eternal, and I have no end. 
O you that enter me, all hope resign." 

From agony to agony the pilgrims plunge deeper and deeper into the 
abyss of hell, meeting sinner after sinner whose ghastly story is told at more 
or less length, until they reach the visible, abhorrent presence of Lucifer, who 
from " perfect in beauty " has by rebellion become absolute in hideous horror. 

Mid-Lucifer occupies the earth's centre of gravity. Virgil, with Dante 



ITALY. 



289' 



clinging to him, clambers down the upper half of Lucifer and climbs up the 
lower half, whereby the twain find themselves emerging from the depth of 
hell upon the Mountain of Purgatory. 

This purgatory is the domain of pain and hope — finite pain, assured hope. 
Here the shade of Beatrice assuming in her own person the guidance of her 
lover, Virgil vanishes. 

Under the guardianship of Beatrice, Dante mounts through eight suc- 
cessive heavens to that ninth which includes within itself all blessedness. 

Dante was of middle stature, and had a long face and aquiline nose. His 
complexion was very dark, and his countenance always sad. 

The most important church in Florence is the church of Santa Croce. It 
contains monuments erected to the memory of the most celebrated men of 
Italy. Byron alludes to it in the fourth canto of " Childe Harold : " 

" In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie 

Ashes which make it holier; dust which is, 
Even in itself, an immortality. 

Though there were nothing save the past, and 
this. 
The particle of those sublimities 

Which have relapsed to chaos : here repose 
Angelo's, Alfieri's bones, and his, 
The starry Galileo, with his woes ; 
Here Machiavelli's earth returned to whence it 
rose." 

The principal monuments of the church are 
as follows : Michael Angelo Buonarotti. The galileo. 

three statues of painting, sculpture, and architecture appear as mourners. 
His bust, by Lorenzi, is considered a most correct likeness. The position of 
this monument was selected by Michael Angelo himself that he might see 
from his tomb the dome of the cathedral, the delight and study of his mind ; 
Alfieri's monument, by Canova, erected at the private expense of the Countess 
of Albany; colossal monument to Dante; monument of Machiavelli ; also of 
Lanzi, writer on Italian art. 

VENICE. 

The city of Venice, formerly called the " Queen of the Adriatic," is un- 
rivalled as to beauty and situation. It stands on a bay near the Gulf of Venice. 
In this gulf, or Adriatic sea, tlie ceremony of espousing the Adriatic took 
place annually on Ascension day. It was performed by the doge, accom- 
panied by all the nobility and ambassadors in gondolas, dropping into the sea 
a ring from his bucentaur or state barge. This ceremony was omitted for 
the first time in many centuries in 1797. 
19 




290 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE. 



In 1 172 the appointment of the doge and other magistrates was vested in 
the grand council of four hundred and eighty members. Change after cliange 
took place, until a Council of Ten secured the government to themselves. 
Under this unchecked oligarchy a reign of terror began. The ten were terri- 
ble ; but still more terrible were the three inquisitors — two black, one red — 
appointed in 1454. Deep mystery hung over the three. They were elected 
by the ten ; none else knew their names. Their great work was to kill ; and 
no man — doge, councillor, or inquisitor — was beyond their reach. Secretly 
they pronounced a doom ; and ere long the stiletto or the poison cup had done 
its work, or the dark waters of the lagoon had closed over a life. The spy 
was everywhere. No man dared to speak out, for his most intimate com- 
panions might be on the watch to betray him. Bronze vases, shaped like a 
lion's mouth, gaped at the corner of every square to receive the names of sus- 
pected persons. Gloom and suspicion haunted gondola and hearth. 

No scene in Venice is of greater interest to the traveller than the " Bridge 
of Sighs," immortalized by Byron in the fourth canto of " Harold Childe:" 

"I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs; 
A palace and a prison on each hand : 
I saw from out the waves her structures rise, 
As from the stroke of the enchanter's wand : 
A thousand years their cloudy wings expand 
Around me, and a dying glory smiles 
O'er the far times, when many a subject land 
Look'd to the winged lion's marble piles, 
Where Venice sate in state, throned on her liundred isles." 

Criminals were conveyed across this bridge to hear their sentence, and 



ITALY. 291 

from there led to their execution ; from this it derives its melancholy but ap- 
propriate name. 

The Grand Canal, which takes a serpentine course through the city, is in- 
tersected by 146 smaller canals, over which there are 306 bridges, which being 
very steep, and intended only for foot-passengers, are cuf into steps on either 
side. These canals, crossed by bridges, form the water-streets of Venice, the 
greater part of the intercourse being carried on by means of gondolas. They 
are long, narrow, light vessels, painted black, according to an ancient law, 
containing in the centre a cabin nicely fitted up with glass windows, blinds, 
cushions, etc. ; those belonging to private families are much more richly 
decorated. 

PADUA. 

A litde over twenty miles from Venice lies Padua, the most ancient city of 
the north of Italy. It abounds in tradition, and its foundation was ascribed to 
Antenor, after the siege of Troy. It was taken by Alaric, Attlla, and the Lom- 
bards, but restored by Charlemagne to its former grandeur, and under his 
successors it became flourishing and independent. The appearance of the 
city is very singular: large portions of irregular unoccupied ground, situated 
on the outskirts, adds to its peculiarity. The houses are supported by rows 
of pointed arches ; the city is of a triangular form, surrounded with walls and 
intersected with canals. It has a low, marshy situation, at the terminus of the 
Canal of Monselici, between the Brenta and Bacchiglione. Travellers are 
generally much disappointed in the appearance of this city, it being very damp 
and exceedingly gloomy ; the streets are narrow, unclean, and very monoto- 
nous ; they are bordered by arcades, and have no leading thoroughfares. 

• The University of Padua was quite celebrated in the fourteenth and fif- 
teenth centuries ; it was not only patronized by an immense number of students 
from all parts of Europe, but also from Mohammedan countries. Dante and 
Petrarch were among its pupils ; Harvey received his degree of medicine here 
in 1602 ; Galileo and Guglielmi were among its professors of philosophy. 

VERONA. 

Verona is delightfully situated on the river Adige, which flows through It 
and divides it into two unequal parts, forming a peninsula. The river, being 
wide and rapid, is crossed by four noble stone bridges. 

Verona is particularly celebrated for having been the birthplace of many 
distinguished men, some of whom are worthy of particular mention : The 
celebrated Roman poet Catullus, born b. c. 86 ; he lived and died poor, as 
many other poets have done, although he possessed a superior genius. At 
the time of his death he was thirty years old, in the flower of his age, and at 
the height of his reputation. He had a great admiration for the fair sex: in 



292 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

speaking of Lesbia, and how many kisses would satisfy him, said that he de- 
sired as many as there were grains of sand in the deserts of Libya and stars 
in the heavens. AureHus Macer, a Latin poet in the age of Augustus ac- 
quired considerable fame. CorneHus Nepos, the Latin historian, who flour- 
ished in the time of JuHus Caesar ; he left the " Lives of the Illustrious Greek 
and Roman Captains" as a monument to his memory; he died in the reign 
of Augustus. " Caius Secundus Pliny the elder," one of the most learned 
of the ancient Roman writers, born a. d. 23. 

There was one person who did more to increase, by his own efforts, the 
fame of the city, than all the rest of its natives. This was the celebrated 
painter Paul Cagliari, surnamed Veronese from having been born in Verona, 
which event took place in 1530. He was the son of a sculptor, and at an 
early age manifested a strong desire to become a painter. He was styled by 
the Italians " the happy painter." Titian and Tintoretto were selected as his 
models of perfection. 

Verona is distinguished as one of the most industrious towns of Italy. It 
has nine establishments for weaving silk ; sixty silk-twist factories ; large 
leather, earthenware and soap factories ; also others for the weaving of linen 
and woollen fabrics. Its trade consists chiefly in these articles ; also in raw 
silk, grain, oil, sumach and agricultural produce. Two weekly markets are 
located here ; two fairs take place annually, and continue for fifteen days each. 
The fruits and flowers raised in Verona are remarkably fine. The climate is 
healthy, but a little keen, on account of its near approach to the Alps. 

MILAN. 

Milan is the principal city of northern Italy, nearly circular in its formation, 
and surrounded by a wall which was mostly erected by the Spaniards in 1555. 
The space between the canal and wall is laid out in gardens and planted with 
fine trees ; the city proper is about eight miles in circumference, and although, 
like most ancient cities, it is very irregularly laid out, yet it is one of the most 
interesting in Europe, full of activity and wealth, has some noble thorough- 
fares, and displays a number of fine buildings kept in thorough repair. 

Milan stands at an elevated height of 452 feet above the sea. It was an- 
nexed to the Roman dominions by Scipio Nasica, 191 b. c. It ranked the 
sixth city in the Roman empire in the fourth century. In the twelfth century 
it was the capital of a republic, and afterward of a duchy in the families of 
Sforza and Visconti. It was held by Spain, after the battle of Pavia, until it 
was ceded to Austria in 17 14. It was taken by the French in 1796, and also 
after the batde of Marengo, in 1800. From 1805 until 18 14 it was the capi- 
tal of the kingdom of Italy. 

Milan cathedral is the finest Gothic edifice in Italy, and, as a church, ranks 
next to St. Peter's. No person can fail to be impressed with its sublimity ; 



ITALY. 293 

and the idea suggests itself to one beholding it that, although nature in her 
works was so perfectly faultless and impressive, man, in his efforts to com- 
pete with her, was brought into very close alliance. If so grand at all times, 
how greatly must that grandeur be increased when the entire building is il- 
luminated, as it was after the batde of Magenta, and to celebrate at the same 
time the anniversary of the five days of March, 1848, when the Milanese rose 
and expelled their Austrian masters ? After the entire city was illuminated, 
gorgeous rays of light, representing the Italian colors, red, green and white, 
blazed forth simultaneously from this magnificent edifice ; spire, roof and body 
presenting a mysterious grandeur and sublime beauty, with which no one 
could fail to be everlastingly impressed. The delicate tints of the crimson, as 
they reflected upon the white marble of the cathedral, were scarcely surpassed 
by the deeper color which it afterward assumed, and then so mysteriously 
changed into green, and then to the purest white. 

In Milan is to be seen the celebrated painting of " The Last Supper," by 
Leonardo da Vinci, the greatest painting by one of the greatest painters that 
has ever lived. 

NAPLES. 

The country around Naples is rich in beauties of scenery; nothing can 
well be conceived to be more beautiful. Quite a celebrated author remarks 
that he congratulated himself upon being delayed on the route, so that he did 
not arrive at Naples until late at night, for it enabled him to andcipate with 
brighter hopes the beauty of the scene that opened on his eyes with the light 
of morning. Tlie situation of Naples is as fine as can be imagined, being 
pardy seated on a spacious bay, upon the shores of which are magnificent 
villas and gardens. 

It is principally in respect to situation that this city surpasses most others. 
The streets are straight, and paved with square blocks of lava laid in mortar, 
and said to resemble the old Roman roads. Owinor to the mildness of the 
climate, a great deal of business is carried on in the open streets, and, while 
walking along, you are accosted by numerous different traders. There is but 
little real magnificence in architecture; and, though many of the buildings are 
erected on a very grand scale, they are generally overloaded with ornament. 
The houses resemble those of Paris, except that they are on a larger scale. 

Naples is very ancient. It was founded by the people of Cumae, a colony 
from Greece, who gradually spread themselves round the bay of Naples, and 
was called from this circumstance Neapolis, or " The New City." 

In after years it became, as it is now, a seat of pleasure. Its hot baths, 
the number and excellence of its theatres and other places of amusement, its 
matchless scenery, the mildness of its climate, and the luxury and effeminacy 
of its inhabitants, made it a favorite retreat of the wealthy Romans. 

The nobility are fond of great show and splendor. The females are 



-294 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

proud, even when very poor. They never go out unless to ride, and bestow 
great pains and time upon their personal charms, to fascinate the other sex. 
The principal promenade of the ladies is on their own roof, which is generally 
adorned with shrubs and flowers. 

Within a few hours' journey from Naples are the ruins of Paestum, and 
also the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were destroyed by an 
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79. 

The grandeur, gloom and majesty of the temples of Paestum, standing 
alone as they do amid their mountain wilderness, similar to Baalbec, without 
a vestige near of any power that could have raised them, surpasses anything 
of the kind on earth. The principal ruins are the Basilica, the Temple of 
Neptune, the Amphitheatre, the Temple of Vesta and the Forum. 

The early history of Pompeii is involved in obscurity, but the supposition 
is that it was settled by Osci and Pelasgi prior to the establishment on this 
coast of the Greek colonies from Euboea. It fell into the hands of the Sam- 
nites about the year 440 b. c, and was taken by the Romans eighty years 
afterward; during the Social War it revolted with the other Campanian towns, 
and but little more was known respecting it until it was visited by an earth- 
quake A. D. 63, which occasioned great destruction ; it was afterward over- 
whelmed, in 79, by the eruption of Vesuvius, and continued to be buried under 
the ashes and other volcanic matter for about 1,669 years. Notwithstanding 
that the celebrated architect and engineer, Domenico Fontana, who was em- 
ployed in constructing an aqueduct to convey water to Torre, fell in with the 
ruins of the city, no particular attention was paid to the discovery until 1748, 
when the peasants were employed in cutting a ditch, since which time it has 
continued to be an object of great interest, and since 1755 the progress of 
excavation has been pretty constantly prosecuted. 

Pompeii has the reputation of being "the most wonderful of the antiqui- 
ties of Italy, and one which it is said never disappoints the traveller who is at 
all acquainted with the history of ancient Rome." 

Herculaneum was destroyed by torrents of volcanic mud, upon which, in 
subsequent eruptions, ashes and streams of lava fell to a depth varying from 
seventy to_i 10 feet: no great loss of life resulted from the destruction of this 
city. It is said by an eminent historian to have been built on elevated ground 
between two rivers, thereby rendering the atmosphere perfectly healthy. 
Some quite distinguished Romans resided in the city and suburbs. 

Too much cannot be learned or said of these ruins of antiquity, with the 
history of which every student must be familiar. The melancholy destruction 
of such a city, the desolation which spread from dwelling to dwelling, the flight 
of mother, father, sister and brother from the scene of terror and confusion, 
must awaken feelings of awe and sympathy in every human heart. Mothers, 
with infants in their arms, seeking safety and protection, gathering their little 



ITALY. 295 

ones around them, trying to escape uninjured, and yet how many were plunged 
into a fearful eternity ! 

A united Italy had always been the dream of her greatest patriots; but it 
was not till 1870 that this dream was realized. The main agents in bringing 
about this result were Count Cavour, one of the greatest of modern statesmen, 
and the patriots Mazzini and Garibaldi. In 1848, when France had once 
more cast out her king, the Italians rushed to arms for the purpose of driving 




DESTRUCTION OF POMPEII. 



out the Austrians from Italy, and of becoming a united nation. Pius IX., who 
had recently become pope, had given some unexpected evidences of a sym- 
pathy with the popular desire. He permitted a body of Roman volunteers to 
join the patriot ranks, but, .being a man of peace, he soon withdrew his per- 
mission. 

General Garibaldi spent the largest portion of the years 1 851, '52, and '53 



296 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



on Staten Island, and the house in which he lived has been made, in a way, a 
memorial by the Italian colony of New York, who purchased it, and after suit- 
ably marking it with a marble tablet commemorative of the great revolutionist's 
stay in it, presented it to Antonio Meucci, whose guest he was during most of 
his stay in the United States. 

Signor Meucci knew Garibaldi in South America, and for many years lived 
in Havana, Cuba. Originally a sculptor, he was but in moderate circumstances 
when Garibaldi, escaping from Austrian tyranny in Piedmont, took ship at 




POPE PIUS IX. 



Genoa and arrived in New York. He offered him the shelter of his humble 
home on Staten Island and the "Liberator" gladly accepted it. The twain, 
with General Avezzano, formed a partnership in the manufacture of stearine 
and paraffine candles on a small scale, and the furnace in which they melted 
and mixed their material before runningfinto the moulds is still standing;' in the 
yard of the brewery, where it is slowly crumbling away under the tooth of time, 
surrounded by huge beer casks. 



ITALY. 



297 



Dr. Nardyz, who was then an officer of the corvette, and subsequently 
served on Garibaldi's staff in Italy, thus describes the hero's appearance at that 
time: "He was about five feet six or seven inches hieh, and weighed about 

o o 

one hundred and sixty pounds. His eyes were light and his hair and beard 
red. He was very quick and active on his feet, and very pleasant and agree- 
able in his manners. At the time he was quite poor, all his property in Italy 
having been sequestered, and he acted as salesman of the candles he helped 
to manufacture. They were a novelty at the time, and he was concerned in 
their invention. He used to carry them to New York in a basket and go 
about from store to store disposing of them and soliciting orders for more." 

Garibaldi was high up in masonry, and while a resident of Staten Island 
he established the masonic lodge in New York which now bears his name. 




OARIBALDI. 

The marble tablet affixed to the front of the house bears a legend, of which 
the following is a translation : 

Here lived and labored, from 1851 to 1853, 
GUISEPPE GARIBALDI, 

THE HERO OF TWO WORLDS. 

March 9th, 1884. Erected by Friends. 

In return for his services to Italy and Victor Emmanuel (although he had 
litde love for the latter) Garibaldi was given a pension of two hundred thou- 
sand francs a year. He retired to the island of Caprera, and on this before 
rather barren rock he established a home which was truly delightful. He 



298 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



made it a garden spot, but, no doubt, amid its enjoyments his memory often 
reverted to the time when he was an exile in the humble abode on Staten 
Island. 

Garibaldi for a time governed Naples. The people were asked to declare 
their wishes in regard to their political future. They voted, by vast majorities, 
in favor of union with Sardinia. King Victor Emmanuel, in accepting the 
new trust, summoned the people to concord and self-denial. "All parties," he 
said, "must bow before the majesty of the Italian nation, which God uplifts." 

Humbert IV., King of Italy, the eldest son of King Victor Emmanuel, was 
born March 14th, 1844. At an early age he obtained an insight into political 

and military life under the guid- 



.•^15-~^ 




He took 



ance of his father, 
part in the reorganization of the 
ancient kingdom of the Two 
Sicilies, and in 1862 he visited 
Naples and Palermo, where he 
shared the popularity of Gari- 
baldi. In 1868 he married his 
cousin, the Princess Marguerite 
of Savoy. He succeeded to the 
throne on the death of his fa- 
ther, in 1878. In the same 
year, as he was entering Na- 
ples, a man named Passanante 
approached the royal carriage 
and attempted to assassinate 
him with a poniard. The king 
escaped with a slight scratch, 
but the prime minister, who was 
with him, was wounded rather 
badly in the thigh. King Hum- 
bert has shown himself to be a 
good king and brave soldier. 
Byron, in his " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," thus apostrophizes Italy, its 
remarkable history, passing vividly before his mind : 

" Italia ! O Italia ! thou who hast 
The fatal gift of beauty, which became 
A funeral dower of present woes and past, 
On thy sweet brow is sorrow plough'd by shame 
And annals graved in characters of flame." 



KING HUMBERT IV. 




ANGOULEME. 



FRANCE. 



Q^^^fi 




f UROPE was gradually peopled from Asia. Four great tides of 
migration may be noted. First came the wave which peopled 
Greece and Italy ; then Celts and Cimbri, who occupied Spain, 



}P^ France and Britain ; in the third place the Germans, who filled 
'^ Central Europe; and lastly, Sarmatian or Sclavonic tribes, who peo- 
pled the north-east, and upon whom pressed the Huns from Mount 
Ural, and Tartars from beyond the Caspian. 
Early in the sixth century we find France parcelled out among three 
nations — Franks in the north and centre, Visigoths in the south-west and 
Burgundians in the south-east. Underlying these ruling races was a great 
mass of Celts or Gauls, and some Roman setders, reduced to a state of vas- 
salage. Clovis, the leader of the Salian Franks, was at first merely a captain 
of lettdes, or free warriors, with no title to command except what his personal 
qualities gave him. He roved from city to city, until the influence of the 
clergy, and the gift of a gold crown and purple robes from Constantinople, 
gave him some show of royalty, and then he fixed his court at Paris. 

Beginning with Pharamond in 418, the list of Merovingian kings of the 

(299) 



300 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Franks contains thirty-four names. Third of these was Meroveg or Meer- 
v/'ig (sea-warrior), from whom the race derived their name. And the fifth 
was Clovis, who has been already named as the true founder of the French 
monarchy. 

Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was born about 742, and when twenty- 
nine years of age became ruler of the Prankish kingdom. 

His reign divides itself into two parts. The one, extending from its open- 
ing in 771 to the complete subdual of the Saxons in 804, was spent in con- 
stant wars on almost every frontier ; the other, from 804 to his death, was de- 
voted to the organization and improvement of the vast empire which his 
sword had won. 

The chief wars of Charlemagne were with the Saxons beyond the Rhine, 
the Lombards of Italy, the Saracens of Spain, and the Avars, who occupied 
modern Hungary. He fought also with the Danes, and the Sclavonic tribes 
on his eastern border. 

Charlemagne died of pleurisy in his seventy-second year. A year before, 
in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, amid the applause of the assembled no- 
bles, he had caused his only living son Louis to assume the imperial crown. 

Louis le Debonnaire, fitter for a monk's cell than a selfish court or brawl- 
ing camp, succeeded his great father, and did all his gentle nature could for 
twenty-six years to humanize his subjects. But belted bishops and lawless 
chiefs were too strong for him. War among his three sons then divided the 
empire. Lothaire, the eldest, seized the imperial title ; but Charles and Louis, 
uniting, defeated him in 841, on the bloody field of Fontenaille. Two years 
later a treaty was made at Verdun, by which France and Germany became 
separate and independent states. Charles held France ; Louis ruled Ger- 
many ; while Lothaire received Italy, with some broken strips along the 
Rhone and Rhine. As had happened in the family of Clovis, the race of 
Charlemagne, called Carlovingians, grew very degenerate ; and there is noth- 
ing in the history of kings branded with nicknames, such as the Stammerer, 
the Fat, the Foolish, the Lazy, to challenge our notice or respect. Such men 
misgoverned France, until, in 987, under Hugh Capet, a new dynasty arose. 
With that date the history of the Franks ends ; that of the French begins. 

The history of France soon merges, from this period, into that of the Cru- 
sades, when all Christendom began to be aroused by the wild eloquence of 
Peter the Hermit. 

This man, said to have been a native of Amiens, was a soldier in his youth. 
Upon the death of his wife, he retired broken-hearted to a hermit's cell, from 
which, however, his innate love of change drove him a pilgrim to the Holy 
Land. Returning thence full of anger at the degradation of the sacred spot, 
he obtained leave from Pope Urban II. to call all true Christians to arms ; and 
as he passed through Italy and France, a fleshless spectre, clad in mean rai- 



FRANCE. 301 

ment, with bare head and feet, and staggering under a heavy crucifix, his 
fierce war-cry woke an echo in milHons of hearts. 

Within the same year two general councils were called by the pope — one 
at Placentia, the other at Clermont, in Auvergne. At the latter, both the 
pope and the hermit spoke in words of fire. With one voice all who heard 
cried out in the old Yr&nch, " Diett It volt !'' — " It is the will of God ! " and 
few there were who left the old market-place on that day without a red cross 
on the shoulder, to mark them as soldiers in the sacred cause. 

The great captain of the first crusade (war of the cross), was Godfrey 
of Bouillon, or Boulogne, the Duke of Basse-Lorraine. This leader is the 
hero of Torquato Tasso's great poem, "Jerusalem Delivered." Godfrey one 
day, in single combat with a Turk, cut his foe in two ; one-half fell into the 
river, the other sat still on horseback — " by which blow," says Robert the 
Monk, " one Turk was made two Turks." 

At last the capital of Palestine, lovely even in her desolation, rose in their 
view. The knights, springing from their saddles, wet the turf»vvith tears of 
mingled joy and grief. Barefooted and weeping the litde band advanced. 
Under a sky of burning copper, with no water in the pools and brooks, they 
fought for five long weeks before Godfrey and his stormers stood victorious 
within the walls. The massacre of 70,000 Moslems, and the burning of the 
Jews in their synagogue, stained the glory of the conquerors. 

Forty-eight years passed, and then a second crusade began, which ended 
disastrously, although Jerusalem still remained in the hands of two orders of 
military monks — the Hospitallers and Templars. But when the news came 
that Jerusalem had fallen before Saladin, the great Sultan of Egypt, and that 
the golden cross, which had glittered for eighty-eight years on the Mosque of 
Omar, markine its transformation into a Christian church, had been trampled 
in the streets, Europe for the third time girt herself for war. The three 
great western princes took the cross— Richard I. of England, Philip Augustus 
of France and Frederic Barbarossa (Redbeard) of Germany. A tax, called 
Saladin's tithe, was laid upon Christendom to meet the expenses of the war. 
As was usual in all the Crusades, complete absolution from sin was promised 
to every soldier who struck a blow at the infidel. 

It was, however, nearly a year after their setting out that the royal warriors 
appeared before Acre ; Philip first, Richard shordy afterwards. New vigor 
stirred in the besiegers ; and Saladin must have trembled for his hold upon 
the key of Syria when he saw the plain whitened with a new camp of many 
thousand tents. One glimpse of the great Saracen's character must not be 
passed by. Even at so great a crisis, this generous foe sent frequent pres- 
ents of pears and snow to cool the fever, of which Richard and Philip lay 
sick in their tents. Ere long the broken ramparts of the city yielded to the 
crusaders, and the sultan fell back towards the south. 



302 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Soon after the fall of Acre, Philip returned to France. Other Crusades 
followed, only to end disastrously. The strangest was the Boy Crusade of 

I2I2. 

A shepherd boy, Stephen, of Vendome, gave out that God in a vision had 
bestowed on him bread, and had sent him with a letter to the King of France. 
Round him gathered 30,000 children of about twelve years. Boys were there, 
and girls in boys' clothes, on horseback and afoot. The tears and prayers 
of their parents could not turn them from their mad design. The strange 
flame spread through all France ; from castle and from hut the little ones fled 
to follow the car of Stephen. With wax candles in their hands, clad in pil- 
grim's dress, they moved, singing hymns, over the hot dusty plains of Prov- 
ence, upheld through all the toils and terrors of the way by the wild hope 
that the waters of the sea, drying up before them, would open a path to the 
Holy Land. Robbed by the way, they were yet more pitilessly cheated in 
Marseilles. Two merchants agreed to take them to Palestine, for the love of 
God, as the canting scoundrels said. The children set sail in seven ships. 
Two of these were wrecked, and all on board lost. The other five bore their 
precious freight to Egypt, where all were sold as slaves. It is some consola- 
tion to know that the rascally merchants were soon after hanged in Sicily. 

The life of the Middle Ages is deeply colored with the brilliant hues of 
chivalry. There the knight is the central figure — the model of mediaeval art — 
the hero of mediaeval literature — foremost in every court revel and greenwood 
sport, in the glittering tilt-yard and the dusty battle-field. 

The tournament has been well called the link which united the peaceful tO' 
the warlike life of the knight. They were first held in France, as the French 
origin of the name seems to show. England and Germany soon followed the 
example of their neighbors. The lists, in which the encounters took place, 
were roped or railed off in an oval form, generally between the city and a 
wood. The open spaces at each end were filled with stalls and galleries for 
the ladies and the noble spectators. 

Bayard, who fell in France in 1524, was almost the last of the preux chev- 
aliers of that knightly land. The Emperor Maximilian I. is still called in Ger- 
many ''dcr letzte Ritter'" — the last knight. In England chivalry, as a system,, 
lasted till the time of Elizabeth. 

We find a brilliant reflection of chivalry in the romantic literature which 
grew up about the time of the Crusades. The Romance pictures the knight 
in his glory, splendid but clumsy ; suave and courteous in the extreme, but 
very often brutal. The enchanted castle with its beautiful and distressed cap- 
tives, the monster dragons and other terrors to be overcome by the uncon- 
quered arm of the hero, were the allegorical images of evils existing in that 
terrible time, when might was the only right, highly magnified and colored by 
the untaught poets, who sang of them. It is a pity to think that the knight- 



FRANCE. 303 

errant is a very doubtful character, whose picture, if ever he existed, must have 
been drawn from those cliev^aliers who travelled from tournament to tourna- 
ment, claiming and receiving hospitality everywhere as citizens of the world. 
The Romance, owing its birth to chivalry, repaid the benefit by prolonging the 
life of chivalry for many years. The deeds of Arthur and Charlemagne 
formed the subjects of some of the earliest romances. 

The history of France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries brought 
into prominence the great names of Richelieu, Mazarin and Colbert. 

France had already produced one or two great names in literature. Rab- 
elais, the greatest of all humorists, was born at Touraine in 1483. His chief 
work is a satirical romance, of which a giant, Gargnatua, and his son are the 
heroes. He died in 1553. 

Montaigne printed his "Essays" in 1580, and they are by far the best of 
their kind. Our own great essayist, Emerson, calls Montaigne one of the 
great "representative men" of the world. 

The great brilliance of the court of Louis XIV. was owing to the cluster 
of wits and literary men whom he gathered round him. Corneille and Racine, 
the tragedians ; Moliere and Regnard, the comedians ; Boileau and La Fon- 
taine, the poets ; La Rochefoucauld and La Bruyere, the wits ; Des Cartes and 
Pascal, the philosophers ; Bossuet and Arnauld, the divines ; Mabillon and 
Montfaucon, the scholars; Bourdaloue and Massillon, the preachers; all gave 
lustre to his reign. With such men he lived in close intimacy; and thus, too, 
he struck a blow at the old noblesse, for his aristocracy of talent, of which he 
made so much, was drawn almost altogether from the ranks of the people. The 
writings of these great stars of French Hterature bear the stamp of the age. 
They are highly polished and have a stately grace ; but they were written by 
men who breathed an atmosphere of splendid artificiality ; and they lack, in 
consequence, " that touch of nature which makes the whole world kin." 
They were not written for the whole world, but for the favored few who wore 
rufiBes and brocade. Dryden and Pope, who got their inspiration from Paris, 
are the best examples in English literature of a similar style. 

Louis XV. being only five years old when his great-grandfather died, the 
government was placed in the hands of Philip, Duke of Orleans, the nephew 
of the dead king. This prince, whose licentious extravagance was rivalled by 
that of his worthless minister, the Cardinal Dubois, held the regency for eight 
years. When, in 1723, Orleans and Dubois sank within a few months of 
each other into the grave, Louis XV. was a boy of fourteen. Three years later 
began the administration of Cardinal Fleury, tutor to the king, which, lasting 
for seventeen years marks the best period of a shameful reign. Then, when 
Fleury died, France went rapidly down the hill. The court, ruled by the 
painted favorites of the licentious king, Pompadour and Dubarry, exhausted 
every shape of costly debauchery. The last sou of taxation was wrung from 



304 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

the starving peasants. The soldiers of France were beaten at Dettingen, at 
Rossbach, and at Minden. Canada, Nova Scotia, and some of the finest of 
the Antilles were wrested from Louis by the English. The health of the 
public mind was sapped by the infidelities of Voltaire and the mock sentimen- 
talism of Rousseau. 

THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. 

Louis XVI. succeeded his grandfather on the loth of May, 1774. Then 
twenty years of age, he had been already four years married to Marie An- 
toinette, the beautiful daughter of Maria Theresa. The young couple entered 
with the fresh joy of their years into the gayeties of the coronation, and all 
high-born France rang with the noise of feasting. But in every square mile 
of the land there were men whose wives and children cried to them in vain 
for bread. 

At last, after many muttered warnings, and long-gathering darkness, the 
tempest broke in awful fury. A fierce mob, whose souls were leavened with 
infidelity and brutalized by changeless misery and never-satisfied hunger, 
raged through the Paris streets. The spark which fired the mine was a rumor 
that the soldiers were marching to dissolve the Assembly. Necker, too, the 
sole hope of the starving people, had been dismissed. Cockades of green 
leaves, torn from the trees, became the badge of the rioters. Shots were 
heard in many quarters. An old man was killed by a bullet from the Ger- 
man guards. 

Then the grim old prison of the Bastile was stormed. Within its dark 
walls hundreds of innocent hearts had broken, pierced through with the iron 
of hopeless captivity. The terrible Icltres de cachet — sealed orders from the 
king to arrest and fling into prison without a trial, and often without any dis- 
tinct charge — had packed its dungeons with wretched men during the late 
reign. Little wonder, then, that the first rush of the mob was to the Bastile. 
Dragging cannon from Les Invalides, they opened a fire upon the walls, burst 
in, and, seizinof the governor, slew him in the Place de Greve. 

The flames then burst out all through the land, except in La Vendee. The 
chateaux of the nobles were pillaged and burned to the ground. Tortures 
were inflicted by the fierce peasants upon their former masters. The royal 
Jleur de lis was trampled in the mud, and the Tricolor upraised. 

One day in autumn a swarm of women gathered around the Hotel de 
Ville, crying, " Bread ! give bread ! " It became the nucleus of a riotous 
crowd, surging with wild outcries through the street. Then out came Millard 
with a drum, who said he would lead them to Versailles. Outside the bar- 
riers he strove to disperse them, but no — they would go on. Hungry, and 
wet with heavy rain, when they found that the king and the Assembly would 
give them only words, they gathered round the palace. Some fool fired on 



FRANCE. 305 

them. Sweeping through an open gate, they spread through all the splendid 
rooms ; and the queen had scarcely time to escape by a secret door, when her 
bedchamber was filled with a fierce and squalid throng. The timely arrival 
of Lafayette, and the consent of the king to remove to Paris, alone quelled the 
tumult. 

Dark and still darker grew the sky. Mirabeau, "our litde mother Mira- 
beau," as the fishwomen of the gallery used lovingly to call him, was made 
president of the Assembly in January, 1791. He exerted all his giant genius 
to quell the storm, whose rising gusts had been felt at the Bastile and Ver- 
sailles ; and poor Louis clung to the hope that this aristocratic darling of the 
rabble might yet save him. But Mirabeau died in April ; and while the spring 
blossoms were brightening in all the fields of France, the Bourbon lilies 
drooped their golden heads. There seemed no hope for Louis but in flight. 
He fled in despair, but was recognized, stopped at Varennes, and brought 
back to* Paris. 

Matters then grew worse than ever at the centre of the Revolution. The 
Paris mob rose like a sea, swelled by some troops from Marseilles, who, first 
singing along Paris streets the war-hymn of Rouget de Lisle, caused it hence- 
forth to be known as " The Marseillaise." 

King Louis was tried for treason and conspiracy against the nation. He 
denied the justice of the charge. But denial was useless before judges such 
as his. Death was the sentence of the court after a discussion of some days. 
The Reign of Terror began. The Girondists, friends of moderate republican- 
ism, were slain without mercy, or driven over the land, without shelter or food, to 
die. When Marat met a merited death — he was assassinated in his bath by 
Charlotte Corday, a young girl from Caen — Robespierre was left sole dictator 
of France. A frightful carnage followed. Every day saw red baskets of 
human heads carried from the guillotine, whose dull thud was music to the 
crowd. Women sat and worked as calmly as in the pit of the theatre, while the 
fearful tragedy was played out before their eyes. Fathers brought their little 
ones to see the heads fall. And as fast as the prisons were emptied by this 
■wholesale butchery, fresh victims, denounced often by their nearest neighbors, 
-were thrust into the cells to await their certain doom. 

Queen Marie Antoinette followed her husband to the guillodne and the 
grave in the October of the same year. Bailly, Condqrcet, Barnave, and 
Madame Roland met the same fate. Philip Egalite, whose vote had been 
given for the death of his royal kinsman, went also to his richly deserved 
doom. 

Still the mob cried for more heads. The guillodne could not be stopped. 

Some of the Mountain-men, less tigerish than their fellows, were first laid 

below its edge. Such were Danton and Camille Desmoulins. It is little 

-wonder that Christianity was cast aside in this Reign of Terror. The God- 
20 



806 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




dess of Reason, impersonated by a worthless woman, was openly worshipped, 
and torches were burnt before her shrine. A thing was then tried, the failure 
of which is a noteworthy proof how little man's wisdom is when compared 

with that of the all-wise God. Every tenth 
(lay was appointed a day of rest and amuse- 
ment; but neither man nor beast could 
hear the strain of ten days' work. 

The French Revolution may be said to 
have come to an end with the opening of 
tlie career of Napoleon Bonaparte ; indeed 
we may say that with this man's life a new 
era dawned upon the world. A British 
writer says in regard to him, that " Nature 
had no obstacles that he did not surmount 
— space no opposition that he did not 
spurn: and, whether amid Alpine rocks, 
Arabian sands, or Polar snows, he 
seemed proof against peril, and endowed 
with ubiquity ! 

"The whole continent of Europe trem- 
bled at beholding the audacity of his de- 
signs and the miracles of their execution. 
Scepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performances — romance assumed 
the air of history ; nor was there aught too incredible for belief when the world 
saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his flag over her most ancient capitals. All 
the visions of antiquity became commonplace in his contemplation: kings 
were his people: nations were his outposts; and he disposed of courts, and 
crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dig- 
nitaries of the chess-board. 

" Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptred hermit, 
and wrapt in the solitude of his awful originality. A mind, bold, independent, 
and decisive ; a will despotic in its dictates ; an energy that distances expedi- 
tion, and a conscience pliable to every touch of interest, marked the outline of 
this extraordinary character, the most extraordinary perhaps, that, in the an- 
nals of this world, ever rose, or reigned, or fell. 

" Such a medley of contradiction, and, at the same time, such an individual 
consistency, were never united in the same character — a royalist, a republi- 
can and an emperor; a Mahometan, Catholic, and a patron of the synagogue; 
a subaltern and a sovereign ; a traitor and a tyrant ; a Christian and an in- 
fidel — he was through all his vicissitudes the same stern, potent, inflexible 
original — the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a 
model and without a shadow!' 



MARIE ANTOINETTE. 



FRANCE. 



307 



At an early age, when others scarcely start in life, Napoleon's years were 
outnumbered by his victories ; and the kings' of Europe conquered by his 
sword, or subjugated by his genius, lowered before the imperial eagle. It 
would appear that, from his earliest childhood, Napoleon's parents rested all 
their hopes on him. His father, in the delirium with which he was seized in 
his last moments, incessantly called Napoleon to come to his aid with his 
great swore/. 

Napoleon had a very happy knack in speaking, as well as in actin<>- the 
sublime. At the battle of Lodi, there was a battery of the enemy which 
was making dreadful havoc amongst the French ranks ; and repeated attempts 
had been made, in vain, to storm it. An officer came to Bonaparte to rep- 
resent to him the importance of making another effort to silence it; when he 




NAPOLEON'S RESIDENCE AT ST. HELENA. 

put himself at the head of a party, exclaiming, " Let it be silenced then ! " 
and carried it by storm. 

On another occasion he was giving some orders, which were humbly rep- 
resented to him to be impossible ; when he burst out " How ! impossible! That 
word is not French." 

When the marriage of Napoleon with the Archduchess Maria Louisa was 
about to take place, the French emperor, in answer to some remonstrance on 
the subject, observed, " I should not enter into this alliance if I did not know 
that her origin is as noble as my own." This was said for the purpose of 
showing his indifference for mere rank. 

In person Bonaparte was rather under the middle size, being about five 
feet six inches in height. An anecdote is related of his endeavoring to take 
down something he desired from a shelf, but which was above his reach. One 



308 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



of his marshals courteously offered to hand it down to him, using the words: 
"Excuse me, Sire; I am higher than you." "You are taller,'' was the rejoin- 
der of Napoleon. 

After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo he went to Rochefort with the view 
of escaping to America ; but this he could not do, because the British cruisers 
watched all the coast. On the 15th of July he went on board the British ship 
Bellerophon (Captain Maidand), having previously written to the prince re- 
gent to say that " he came, like Themistocles, to claim the hospitality of the 
British people and the protection of their laws." The ship sailed to Torbay, 
where Napoleon received word that the British government had resolved to 
send him to St. Helena. 

The Northumberland carried him out to that lonely rock, -which he reached 
on the 15th of October, 18 15. And there he lived, first at Briars and then at 
Longwood for nearly six years, dreaming of the glorious past. In 181 8 his 

health began to fail, and on the 
5th of May, 1 82 1, he died of an 
ulcer in' the stomach. His body, 
laid at first in Slane's Valley, near 
a clump of weeping willows, was 
borne to France in the winter of 
1840, and placed with brilliant 
ceremony in the Hotel des In- 
valides. 

The history of France since 

18 1 5 is full of change. When 

Louis XVIII. died, in 1824, his 

brother became kingr, with the title 

of Charles X. This king, like all 

his Bourbon kindred, had a mania 

fdr despotic rule. He could not — poor blind king — read the lessons written 

in French blood upon those pages of the national story which had not long 

been closed. 

Louis Philippe succeeded Charles, and his reign lasted from 1830 to 1848, 
when a revolution in France drove him from his throne and he sought shelter 
in England. France was now a republic once more, and Louis Napoleon was 
'elected president. He then overturned the government and was crowned 
emperor. The emperor married Eugenie, Comtesse de Teba, in January, 1853. 
In the summer of 1859, the Emperor Napoleon in person led the French 
armies across the Ticino, won on the soil of Lombardy the brilliant fields of 
Magenta and Solferino, and concluded the mysterious peace of Villatranca. 

The result of the Franco-German war, which ended so disastrously for 
France, put an end to the rule of Napoleon III. He and his army were forced 




TOMB OF NAPOLEON I. 



310 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



to surrender to the victorious Germans, who then marched upon Paris. At 
length Paris itself was forced to surrender to the conquerors. 

The celebrated Vendome Column was destroyed by the Communists, the 
inspiring spirit of that affair being the distinguished French artist and com- 
munist, Gustave Courbet. On the i6th of May, 1871, at a quarter after four 




PORTE ST. DENIS. 



in the afternoon, the Vendome Column, previously undermined by masons, 
yielded, but only after many efforts and slowly, to the strain of powerful wind- 
lasses. It came down with a great crash, filling the adjacent streets and 
squares with dust. An immense crowd was in attendance ; they saw Napo- 
leon's statue roll headless in the debris. The column was subsequendy re- 
stored by the government. 




COLUMN, PLACE VENDOME, PARIS. 



311; 



312 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



In certain respects Paris is the capital of the world. The strangers who 
flock to it in thousands proclaim it to be so. No other city offers equal at- 
tractions to persons of the most varied tastes. Paris consists of a hundred 
distinct cities welded into one, and yet, as a whole, it is full of individuality. 

Architecturally Paris is one of the finest cities of the world./ In its very 
centre rises the church of Notre Dame, a noble edifice of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, illustrating one of the most remarkable epochs in the 
history of architecture./ On the same island stands the Sainte-chapelle, a 
marvel of decoration, erected in the space of two years (i 245-1 247). 

Amongst more modern buildings there are many which challenge admira- 
tion. The Louvre ; the dome of the Invalides ; the Pantheon ; the palace of 
Luxembourg; the Greek temple of the Madeleine, designed by Napoleon ta 
perpetuate his glory ; the new Opera House, and the Arc de Triomphe, form- 
ing a fitting terminus to the noble avenue of the Champs Elysees, would each 
separately constitute the fame of a less worthy town. Most of the public 
buildings of Paris are, however, associated with great historical events. The 
Hotel de Ville, the Tuilleries, the Palais Royal and the Sorbonne are rich in 
historical associations. 

Scientific and art collections abound. At the Museum of Arts and In- 
dustry may be seen a collec- 
tion illustrating the progress 
of the mechanical arts. The 
galleries of the Luxembourg" 
and the Louvre are rich be- 
yond measure in works of art 
of every age. Several of the 
theatres, and notably the Thea- 
tre Francais, may fitly be enum- 
erated amonofst art institu- 
tions. The number of scien- 
tific societies is exceedingly 
large. 

The Porte St. Denis is an 
arch of triumph which was 
erected in 1672, in commem- 
oration of the conquests of 
Louis XIV. in Germany. 
'/ \^ ^ ' ^ Since the death, a few 

coMTE DE PARIS. ycars ago, of the Comte de 

Chambord, there is none of the direct line of Louis XIV, possessing any claim 
to the throne of France. He descended from the eldest son of the Grand 
Dauphin, who was son of Louis XIV. The second son of the Grand 




FRANCE. 



313 



Dauphin became King of Spain as Philip V., and from him descended the 
families known respectively as the Spanish Bourbons, the Bourbons of Parma, 
and the Bourbons of the Two Sicilies ; but Philip formally renounced for him- 
self and his descendants all claims upon the throne of France. 

Upon the extinction of the elder branch of the French Bourbons — direct 
descendants of Louis XIV. — the younger branch, descended from the only 
brother of the great king, has taken its place, and fallen heir to whatever 
rights or claims it may have possessed. That younger branch is known as 
the House of Orleans ; and its head is Louis Philippe Albert, Comte de Paris. 

General Boulanger, the French minister of war, has been called the 
"Bonaparte without a victory." 
He is still quite young, very 
handsome, and a good speaker. 

The upper classes in France 
are brilliantly gifted. In liter- 
ature and the arts, in science, 
and in the application of science, 
they show innumerable names 
of distinction. For the last two 
centuries and a half, ever since 
the rei^n of Louis XIV., the 
French biographical dictionary 
illustrates every department of 
intellectual labor. Many women 
have also made themselves fa- 
mous as authors and artists. 

The " Heptameron," stories 
collected by Margaret of Valois, 
rivals the " Decameron " of Boc- 
caccio ; and Rosa Bonheur, in 

anmial pamtmg, is the equal oi ■""=»^ ^-^^rtw^^ ,.- y// i/--'. 

Landseer. Angouleme, the birth- general boulanger. 

place of Margaret of Valois, was also that of the great French authors, Bal- 
zac and Montalembert. 

France has been termed not inappropriately the vineyard of the earth, its 
grand red wines for finesse and bouquet being unrivalled throughout the 
world, and its wines, led off by Chateau d'Yquem, rivalling those of any other 
country, not omitting even the renowned Johannisberg, and the still more re- 
nowned Tokay, while as regards its sparkling wines France is universally ac- 
knowledged to be without a peer. 





ROYAL PALACE, MADRID. 



SPAIN. 




HERE is more of color, fascination and new sensation In a trip to 
Spain than to any other European country. The country is 
strange and beautiful, the habits and manners of its people novel 
and striking, and it is out of the beaten track. 

Spain is divided into three distinct regions: the south and 
south-east warm and fertile, the productions being those of the 
temperate and tropical zones ; the central consisting of elevated 
plains, but scantily watered ; the northern covered chiefly with mountain 
ranges, high, broken and rugged ; each region being provided by nature with 
outlets to convey its productions to any quarter of the globe. 

No one knows what people first lived in Spain. History begins with the 
Iberians, of whom it tells us litde. The Iberians were followed by the Celts. 
After much fighting the two nations concluded to dwell peacefully together, 
and were called the Celtiberians. 

During the civil wars of the Roman republic, it often happened that the 
defeated general fled to Spain. There he collected his followers, hired sol- 
diers, made alliances with the native tribes, and fought again. It was thus 
(314) 



SPAIN. 315 

during the furious contest of Marius and Sulla for the control of public af- 
fairs. Quintus Sertorius, a partisan of Marius, fled to Spain when Sulla be- 
came victorious. 

Sertorius had a tame fawn which he pretended had been sent to him by 
the goddess Diana, in order to guide his actions in war. If he learned that 
the enemy was preparing to attack some city, or was trying to persuade the 
inhabitants to rebel, he declared that the fawn had warned him to have his 
forces in readiness for action. If he received intelligence of a victory gained 
by his officers, he concealed the messenger who brought it. Then he pre- 
sented the fawn, crowned with flowers, and bade the people rejoice and sac- 
rifice to the gods, for that they would soon hear good news. 

The northern tribes who conquered Rome overran Spain also. The 
Franks, the Suevi. the Alans and the Vandals followed each other, burning 
and slaying as they marched. Great numbers of these passed into Africa; 
the remainder were overcome by the Western Goths, or Visigoths, who suc- 
ceeded them in 411. The Visigoths ruled in Spain until its conquest in the 
eighth century by the Saracens or Moors. 

In 710, Tarik, a lieutenant of the Saracen general Musa, crossing the 
strait from Tangier with 500 men to reconnoitre the Spanish coast, landed at 
the rock ever since called Gibraltar (the hill of Tarik). Next year, with 
12,000 men, he met and defeated at Xeres, Roderic, last of the Visigothic 
kings. The beaten monarch, who had come to battle crowned with pearls 
and lounging in an ivory car, was drowned in the Guadalquivir as he fled 
from the fatal field. Musa completed the conquest of the peninsula, driving 
the remnant of the Visigoths into the mountain-land of Asturias. 

Among the mountains of Asturias the wreck of the Visigothic nation, 
shattered on the field of Xeres, survived ; and these, breathing the free moun- 
tain air and eating the bread of hardship, became steeled into a race of heroes, 
whose succeedine eenerations never rested until the infidels, driven continu- 
ally southward, were at last expelled from the peninsula. 

Rising from amid the dust of these early wars was seen the famous hero 
of the Spanish ballads, Roderigo Diaz de Bivar, called by the Christians 
Campeador (the Champion), and by the Moors, whom he so often defeated. 
El Seid, the Cid (lord). He was born at Burgos, in the eleventh century. 
Driven from Castile by the usurper Alfonso, he began a guerilla warfare 
against the Moors of Aragon, where he fixed his castle on a crag, which is 
still called the Rock of the Cid. His great achievement was the conquest, 
after a long siege, of the Moorish city of Valencia. There he established a 
little state, over which he ruled until his death in 1099. 

The " Cid," it is related, was never defeated ; alive, he whipped the Moors, 
and, dead, his corpse was miraculously strapped to a steed and driven out to 
attack the invaders, when he routed them with tremendous carnage. Such is 



316 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

the legend; but these legends and proverbs are very solid things in old 
Spain. 

In Granada shone the last blaze of Moorish splendor in Spain. Though 
shrunken to a circuit of iSo leagues, the kingdom of Granada, under the 
Alhamarid monarchs, remained strong and glorious for two centuries and a 
half, defying the chivalry of Spain and enriched by a commerce which car- 
ried her silks and sword-blades, her dyed leather, her fabrics of wool, flax and 
cotton to the bazaars of Constantinople, 'Egypt, and even India. Mulberry 
trees and sugar-canes clothed her fertile valleys. The fair Vega, or cultivated 
plain, sweeping away from the city of Granada for ten leagues, brought forth 
delicious fruits and heavy grain, nourished by the waters of the Xenil, which 
were spread through a thousand rills by the industry of the Moorish husband- 
men. 

To the east rose the white peaks of the Sierra Nevada; and, crowning 
one of the two hills on which the city stood, was the palace or royal fortress 
of the Alhambra, still even in its ruins the great sight of Spain. 

Outwardly the Alhambra seems to be but a plain, square red tower; but 
within, in spite of monkish whitewash and the vandalism of Charles V., who 
pulled down a large part to make room for a winter palace that was never 
finished, it is a group of halls, courts and colonnades of wonderful grace and 
beauty. Their slender columns rivalling the taper palm-tree; walls whose 
stones were cut and pierced into a trellis-work, resembling in its exquisite 
delicacy lace or fine ivory carving; domes honey-combed with azure and ver- 
milion cells, and bright with stalactites of dropping gold ; groves of orange 
and myrde, clustering round the marble basins in which cool silver fountains 
plashed their merry music, formed a scene of fairy splendor, amid which the 
monarchs of Granada held their brilliant court. 

The Moslem power had existed in Spain for nearly eight centuries, when 
the Christian king, Ferdinand, resolved to win Granada from the Moors, and 
laid siege to the city. Famine soon began to be felt. Unknown to his peo- 
ple, the besieged monarch and his advisers entered into negotiations with the 
Spaniards. On a fixed day the Moorish king gave up the keys of the Al- 
hambra; and the great cross of silver, which had been throughout the war the 
leadine ensien of the Christian host, was borne into the Moorish capital amid 
the pealing notes of the Te Deiim. 

The Moorish name of the city was Karnattah, " The Pomegranate," and 
the threat of the Spanish king, Ferdinand, that he would pluck the pome- 
granate leaf and flower to pieces was fulfilled when Boabdil, the last of the 
Moorish monarchs, was driven out of the beautiful city. Upon the height 
overlooking Granada, Boabdil, heart-broken, gazed at the exquisite pome- 
granate that lay beneath him, gazed until compelled to fly, and that spot is 
called unto the present hour EL tdtimo Sospiro del Moro, or "The last Sigh 



SPAIN. 



317 



of the Moor." His eyes were brimming with tears. "Well doth it become 
thee," said his mother, " to weep like a woman for what thou couldst not de- 
fend as a man." 

After the expulsion of the Moors, Spain, under Charles V., engaged in a 
war with France, which was carried on with varying fortune. It then, under 
his son Philip II., turned its arms against the Netherlands. The Spaniards 
were beaten, England giving aid to these northern provinces through the 
terrible strucrorle. 

In 1588, Philip, King of Spain, endeavored to make a complete conquest 
of England, and for that purpose sent an armament of 130 ships. It was 
called the " Invincible Armada," because it was believed to be unconquerable. 
But his hopes proved dreams. The Armada met with nothing but misfor- 
tune, both from battle and from storms. Only fifty ships returned to Spain. 




THE ARMADA. 



The beginning of Spanish literature is found in ballads, which in part ex- 
press national feelings, opinions and beliefs, and in part celebrate great men 
and great deeds. The chronicle followed the ballad. It was in part history, 
in part story ; but it described truly the customs and feelings of the age. Ro- 
mances of chivalry (tales of impossible feats performed by gallant knights) 
were extremely popular. Many, however, believed that they had a damaging 
effect upon the mind. At length the greatest genius which Spain ever pro- 
duced put an end to them by a work which will be read as long as the world 
lasts. This work is called " Don Quixote," and the author is Mieuel de Cer- 
vantes. Cervantes, who wrote it while imprisoned, died in 161 6. No monu- 
ment was raised to his memory until 1835, when a bronze statue of him, larger 



318 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

than life, was set up in Madrid. This is thought to have been the first ever 
erected in Spain in honor of any man of letters or science. 

Calderon, one of the greatest, and Lope de Vega, the most prolific drama- 
tist that ever lived, were natives of Spain. 

Spain has produced some great painters. Velasquez is the finest court 
painter, while Murillo is the best painter of religious pictures. Murillo cared 
little on what material he painted. Once, when employed at a convent, the 
cook of the establishment served him with great zeal. As he was about to 
depart, this brother begged for some slight sketch, when it was discovered that 
there was no more canvas. 

'■ Never mind," said the cook, who feared that he might miss the picture, 
" take this napkin ; " and he held out the one which the artist had used at din- 
ner. 

Murillo took it with a laugh, and before evening it was worth more than 
its weight in gold. He had painted on it a " Virgin and Child," still known as 
the " Virgin of the Napkin." 

Marshal Soult, who was an inveterate looter, was in the habit of seizing 
all the valuable paintings to be found on the line of his march. Of thirteen 
Murillos which he managed to collect in Spain, one of them, an "Immaculate 
Conception," at the Marshal's sale in May, 1852, was bought by the French 
government for 586,000 francs (^117,200). 

There is an amusing story of the circumstances under which Soult secured 
his prize. In pursuit of Sir John Moore he overtook two Capuchin friars, who 
turned out, as he suspected them to be, spies. On hearing that there were 
some fine Murillos in the convent to which they belonged, he ordered them to 
show him the way to it. Here he saw the Murillo in question, and offered to 
purchase it. All to no purpose, till the prior found that the only way to save 
the lives of his two brethren was to come to terms. 

" But," said the prior, "we have had 100,000. francs offered for it." 

" I will give you 200,000 francs," was the reply, and the bargain was con- 
cluded. 

"You will give me up my two brethren ? " asked the prior. 

" Oh," said the marshal, very politely, " if you wish to ransom them, it 
will give me the greatest pleasure to meet your wishes. The price is 200,000 
francs." 

The prior got his friars, but lost his picture. 

Madrid, the capital of the Spanish monarchy, is situated in the centre of an 
arid plain. It is the most elevated of all the capitals of Europe, being about 
2,200 feet above the level of the sea. The royal picture-gallery is the great 
lion of the Spanish capital. It is richer in paintings than any other museum 
in Europe. 

The structure for bull-fighting is built of brick, and is capable of holding 



SPAIN. 



319 



14,000 spectators. The interior is well fitted for seeing this spectacle. The 
fights generally take place on Sunday afternoons. 

Seville, the birthplace of Murillo, as a place of permanent residence, is 
perhaps one of the most desirable in Spain. There is not a day during the 
whole year on which the sun does not shine. The winter is very pleasant. 
Byron says that Seville is famous for its oranges and its women, and the 
women, like the oranges, are of two kinds: bitter and sweet. For a long time 
it was, however, the centre of letters, science and arts. Its most remarkable 
and interesting building is the Alcazar, or palace, the residence of the Moorish 
and Catholic kings of Spain. The name signifies the House of Caesar. It is a 
splendid specimen of Moslem architecture. In the royal chapel there is a 
large assortment of relics, amongst which is a piece of the true cross, the 
chemise of the Virgin Mary, the crown of thorns, with any quantity of legs, 
arms and bones of different male and female saints. 

Valencia is the smallest province in Spain. The Moors believed that 
heaven was suspended over this portion of Spain, and imagined that a portion 
of it had originally dropped here and formed Paradise. Its climate is consid- 
ered far superior to that of Italy for consumptive invalids. 

In one of its churches there is a pict- 
ure said to have been painted under 
the following circumstances ; the Virgin 
Mary, having appeared to Martin de 
Alvaro, a famous Jesuit, and requested 
him to have her painted just as she ap- 
peared, Alvaro described her minutely 
to the famous artist Joanes, who made 
several attempts, but invariably failed. E/ 
At length he joined the church, tried 
again, and succeeded to a miracle. 
When the picture was finished, the Vir- 
gin descended to examine it, and pro- 
nounced it perfect. 

St. Vincent is the patron saint of 
Valencia, "the St. Paul of Spain." He 
came into the world under peculiar cir- 
cumstances ; in fact, before he came he 
was continually barking in his mother's 
womb. His mother, having consulted the bishop on the subject, was assured 
that she would bring forth a " mastiff which would hunt the wolves of heresy 
to hell," It is alleged he never changfed his one woollen orarment, never wore 
linen, nor washed himself 

The city of Saragossa is chiefly noted for the memorable sieges it has 




SPANISH PRIEST. 



320 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



sustained, both in ancient as well as in modern times. It passed from the 
hands of the Romans into those of the Goths. It was conquered by the Moors, 
who made it their capital, in 1017. A century later the Moors were expelled 
by Alphonso of Aragon, after a long siege. Early in the century, Spain, 
wearied with resistance, succumbed to the genius of Napoleon, and the town 
of Saragossa alone remained unconquered. Women of all ranks assisted in 
its defence, forming themselves into battalions of two and three hundred, and 
shirking no exposure or danger. 

The French were so exasperated at the protracted defence offered by this 
single town, that they bribed the people in charge of a powder magazine to 




BRIDGE OF SARAGOSSA. 



blow it up during the night. The enemy then pressed forward, and com- 
menced a vigorous cannonade, and the consequent confusion in the city became 
fearful; the terror-stricken defenders were about to capitulate; the French 
were already pouring into the town through the breaches made by the explo- 
sion and their cannons, when the " Maid of Saragossa " appeared upon the scene, 
turned the fortunes of the day, and immortalized her name. Dressed in white, 
a cross, hanging from her neck, her dark hair falling upon her shoulders, her 
eyes sparkling with the excitement of her resolve, she issued from the church 
of the Donnas del Pillas and, disregarding the insults of the soldiers, passed 
through the streets to the ramparts. Mounting the breach, she seized a lighted 



SPAIN. 321 

match from the hands of a dying engineer and set fire to his piece ; then, 
kissing the cross, she exclaimed : " Death or victory ! " and reloaded the 
cannon. 

The despairing people were seized with fresh hope, enthusiasm filled each 
saddened heart, a great cry arose, "Long live Agostina ! " and the fortunes of 
the day were changed. 

Napoleon, having driven Ferdinand VII. from the Spanish throne, set his 
brother Joseph up in his place. 

In 1868 a revolution took place in Madrid, and Isabella, Queen of Spain, 
was forced to Bee, and take refuge at Paris. Spain remained without either a 
monarchical or any other form of settled government until 1870, when Bis- 
marck proposed to place on the vacant Madrid throne the dapper little Prince 
of Hohenzollern, of Kaiser William's royal stock and household. Napoleon 
III. demurred, and it was on account of this insignificant pretext that the ter- 
rible war between Germany and France was fought. Before it had ended, 
Amadeus, son of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, was offered the throne by General 
Prim, and agreed to accept it. He was pompously inaugurated as king at 
Madrid on the ist of January, 1871. For this work Prim was assassinated 
while he was passing in his carriage through the street, during the royal cere- 
mony. 

Amadeus soon found that he had not got on a bed of roses. He was a 
foreigner, not a Spanish prince — and that was crime enough in the eyes of 
those he had come to reign over. The reception that he met with from his 
new subjects was a freezing one ; in their eyes he was not only a foreign in- 
truder, but the son of the blasphemous and excommunicated King of Italy, 
who was at that moment trampling under his feet the dazzling crown of St. 
Peter, at Rome. He had fondly hoped that all the Spanish factions and par- 
ties would be disposed to unite on him. Nothing of the sort occurred. Car-- 
lists, Isabelinos, Republicans, Internationalists, Intransigents — each and all 
saw in his accession an excellent opportunity to work up the national feeling 
on their particular side, and their intriguing operations at once commenced. 

Amadeus then renounced the crown, and the mock royalty had scarcely 
left the palace ere a " Republic " was proclaimed, the senate and cortes 
amalgamated under the title of " National Assembly," in the French style, and 
a new ministry was seated in the cabinet. 

" Spain a republic ! — what next? " The news fairly took away the breath 
of everybody in Europe, so unexpected and stunning was it. Anything rather 
than that from old Spain ! But the telegraphic despatches were emphatic — 
official. Nevertheless, people at once nodded their heads, giving a sly laugh 
or wink, and spoke of the new-born as "premature." They knew best. The 
new republic lasted only the same length of time that Amadeus had reigned ; 
it gave place to King Alfonso on the ist of January, 1875. 
21 



322 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Alfonso XII., Francisco d'Assisi Fernando Pio Juan Maria de la Concep- 
cion Gregorio, was born November 28th, 1857. He was married, 1878, to 

Maria de las Mercedes, 
who died the same year. 
Alfonso was married again 
to the Archduchess Chris- 
tina, of Austria, 1879. He 
died in 1885. 

The Spanish passion 
for public shows, games 
and festivals is deeply 
rooted. In Spain we still 
meet with that love of 
pageant which with us 
barely survives. The 
bull-fights, so often de- 
scribed, are a remnant of 
the public circus of im- 
perial Rome ; and still at- 
tract their thousands of 
ardent spectators. The 
great fair of Seville is a 
centre for all manner of 
shows ; and the natural 
love of dancing finds vent 
not only in the theatres, 
but in every popular re- 
KiNG ALFONSO XII. uuion throughout Anda- 

lusia. Spanish men and women, though reputed grave, dance in all manner 
of places, and in all styles. How many names of dances betray their Spanish 
origin, such as the Fandango, the Catucha, the Bolero. Gustave Dore has 
drawn various groups of Andalusians enjoying this their favorite pastime, all 
full of grace and spirit, and giving an idea of determined expression of en- 
joyment to which the phlegmatic nations of the North can afford no parallel. 
We laugh and sing because we are amused, and with no thought of how we 
do either. And we dance because we like the motion set to music ; but the 
Spaniard dances to express his emotions of pleasure, and puts mind into the 
action. 

But even more universal than the love of dancing is the love of fighting 
inherent in the people. They will draw out the knife upon every pretext. 
Malaga has, perhaps, the worst reputation for street rows and impromptu 
duels ; but other towns are not far behind. 




PORTUGAL. 323 

Still, in all these traits of character is the germ of possible restoration in 
the future— courage, gayety of spirit, a keen eye for beauty in motion, in 
color, in costume — a capacity for work whenever the backward institutions 
of the country allow a chance of profit — these things have remained by the 
Spanish people amidst all their decadence. 



PORTUGAL. 




^ORTUGAL is one of the smallest European states, stretching along 
the western side of the Spanish peninsula. Its extreme length is 
345 miles north and south; the greatest breadth is 140 miles. 
The climate and resources are similar to those of Spain. 

The city of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is one of great 
antiquity; but it has been subject to frequent earthquakes. 

In 1755 Lisbon was at the height of its prosperity; but in ten min- 
utes, on November ist of that year, the greater and most elegant part of the 
city was one mass of ruins. Fifty thousand souls perished ; the number has 
been put as high as 80,000. The shock was felt nearly all over Europe. 

Camoens is the only Portuguese writer that has obtained celebrity in other 
countries than his own. His works, however, have been translated into most 
of the modern languages of Europe, and he has been counted worthy of a 
place among the great epic poets, in the category with Homer, Viro-il and 
Milton. 

The subject of his great poem, "The Lusiad," is the pointing out to Eu- 
rope a hitherto unknown track to India, which was achieved by a Portuguese 
fleet under command of Vasco de Gama. The eventful and unfortunate life 
of the poet himself enabled him too truly to depict from his own experience 
the sorrows of love, the tumults of the batde-field, the dangers of the deep 
and the luxury of oriental manners, which form the most attractive portions 
of his poem. There is still to be seen, on the coast of China, a kind of nat- 
ural gallery formed by the rocks, which is called the Grotto of Camoens. At 
one time Camoens was shipwrecked ; and it was with difficulty he reached the 
shore, swimming with one hand and bearing his poem above the water with 
the other, while everything else he possessed was lost for ever. 

The people are industrious and commercial : they raise sheep and horned . 
catde; and have lead and iron mines. They possess two large, flourishino- 
seaports, Lisbon and Oporto ; and many colonial dependencies, some in 
Africa, as Senegambia and Mosambique, and others in Asia and the Oceanic 
isles. 




ON THE COAST OF NORWAY. 



SCANDINAVIA. 

DENMARK, NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 

>HE Emperor Charlemagne, looking out one day over the blue 
Mediterranean, saw the snake-like galleys of the Norsemen 
stealing along the horizon, and, as he looked on them, he wept 
for his descendants. 

Already, for many a year, as soon as the spring sunshine 
had unlocked the sea, the Vikings — sea-kings, as they called 
themselves — stirred by a restless, warlike spirit, had pushed out 
from the deep, rocky fiords of Scandinavia, steering south and 
south-west. In the names Norway, and Normandy, we still 

trace their old home, and the scene of one of their most successful descents. 

A branch of the great Teutonic family, they had spread over Denmark, 

(324) 




320 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Norway, and Sweden, from which lands, centuries earHer, had come the famous 
Goths — Teutons too. 

To guard the mouth of the Elbe against the Norsemen, Charlemagne 
built there a strong castle, which served as a nucleus for the great town of 
Hamburg. Before his reign their warlike fire had spent itself within the circle 
of their own lands. We read, in particular, of a desperate battle fought in 
740, on the heath of Braavalla, between Harold Goldtooth, the Dane, and 
Sieurd Rine, the Swedish kinsf. Harold, old and blind, died like a hero on 
the field ; and Sigurd ruled in Scandinavia. 

But then, sweeping both shores of the North sea, began their wider rang- 
ings, which have left deep and lasting marks upon European history. One 
of the earliest of these rovers, Regnar Lodbrok, Sigurd's son, seized by Saxon 
Ella as he was ravaging Lindisfarne, shouted his war-song to the last, while 
snakes were stinijinor him to death in a Northumbrian dungeon. 

Words cannot paint the ferocity of these northern warriors. Blood was 
their passion; and they plunged into battle like tigers on the spring. Every- 
thing that could feed their craving for war they found in their religion and 
their songfs. The chief grod, Odin, was the beau ideal of a Norse warrior; and 
the highest delight they hoped for in Valhalla, their heaven, was to drink end- 
less draughts of mead from the skulls of their enemies. There was, they 
thought, no surer passport to heaven than a bloody death amid heaps of slain. 
And their songs, sung by Skalds when the feast was over, and still heard 
among the simple fur-clad fishermen, who alone remain to represent the wild 
Vikineer, rinor vvith clashincr swords and all the fierce music of battle to 
the death. 

But into the very centre of this dark, raging barbarism sparks of truth 
fell, which brightened and blazed until the fierce idolatry lay in ashes. Ans- 
gar, the apostle of the north and first archbishop of Hamburg, pressing with 
a few monks through fen and forest, early in the ninth century, preached the 
cross at the court of Biorn, on the banks of Maelarn. 

England and France, as was natural from their position, suffered most in the 
descents of the Norsemen. During a part of the time that Harold Haarfager 
(Fair-haired) reigned in Norway (863 to 931), Alfred, King of Wessex, the 
mightiest of all the Norsemen's foes, was laying the foundation of British 
greatness. Little more than a century later, Alfred's crown passed to the 
Norseman, Canute, and Norsemen wore it for twenty-four years. Then a little 
gap, and William, no longer a Norseman, but a Norman — mark well the 
change of name, for it denotes a deeper change of rough sea-kings into steel- 
clad knights — sat as a conqueror on the English throne, and set the wild 
Norse blood flowing down through the whole line of British sovereigns. 

The empire of Canute, consisting of Denmark and Norway, with terri- 
tories along the shores of the Baltic, also of England and part of Scotland, 




MARGARET AWAITS THE ATTACK OF THE VITAL!. 



(:;27) 



328 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

was broken up, and Denmark was distracted by intestine feuds until the reign 
of Margaret, daughter of King Waldemar, who, upon the death of her son 
Olaus, mounted the throne, although the female successor was not recognized, 
and by her beauty so gained the hearts of the people, that she was further 
elected Queen of Norway. Not content with this, she marched into Sweden, 
and for seven years carried on a devastating war ; and finally, by the treaty 
of Calmar in 1397, was proclaimed queen of the three Scandinavian countries. 
She also expelled the Vitali or Victuallers from the Baltic — German pirates 
who were so named because they had brought provisions to Stockholm whilst 
it was in a state of siege. By her valor and heroic deeds Margaret deserved 
and obtained the title of the " Semiramis of the North." 

The union of these three nations of Scandinavia existed, however, but 
nominally and, after being several times ruptured, was finally broken in 1523. 
In 1448, after the death of Christopher of Bavaria, Christian I., the first of the 
house of Oldenburg, which still reigns in Denmark, was elected to the throne. 
Norway and Denmark, however, remained united until 18 14, when Norway 
accepted the sovereign of Sweden as their own. 

The yoke of Denmark was shaken off by Sweden in 1523, when Gustavus 
Vasa, whose father had been slain in a previous insurrection, succeeded in 
driving out the Danes, and was elected king the same year. 

His grandson, the famous Gustavus Adolphus, mounted the throne at the 
age of eighteen, and by his great ability and military genius soon gained the 
admiration of all Europe. He was victorious in wars with Denmark, Russia 
and Poland. He ended his victorious career at the battle of Lutzen in 1632. 

The battle of Lutzen was fought between the Austrians, under the cele- 
brated Wallenstein, and the Swedo-German army under Gustavus Adolphus. 

Wallenstein would not move, and Gustavus had to attack. A thick mist 
covered the ground. The armies were close together, but neither could see 
much of the other. 

The king sang, with his soldiers, Luther's hymn, " A mighty fortress is 
our God! " and then his own battle-song, "Verzage nicht, du Hauflein klein ! " 
He addressed, first to the Swedes, then to the Germans, two of the noblest 
orations before a battle that history records. In an enthusiasm of heroism he 
threw off his cuirass, and cried, " God is my armor ! " Wallenstein was suf- 
fering from gout in the feet. Although his stirrups were thickly padded with 
silk, he could not ride, and took his place in a litter. He called his officers 
together and gave them his orders, which were to fight chiefly on the defen- 
sive. Gustavus gave out the war-cry, " God with us ! " Wallenstein gave to 
his troops as a battle-cry, "Jesus Maria!" About eleven o'clock the mist 
cleared a little, and the fiery king himself headed the attack upon the im^ 
perialist lines and ditches. 

Gustavus, riding alone with his cousin, Duke Franz von Lauenburg, the 



SCANDINAVIA. 329 

page, Leubelfingr, and a groom, stumbled upon an Imperial ambush. His 
horse, maddened by a bullet, threw its rider and fled. The king received a 
bullet in the arm and another shot in the back. This second shot was, as the 
Swedes maintain, fired by Lauenburg, who left the king to his fate, rode away, 
and afterward joined the imperialist side. German historians speak doubt- 
fully on the point, and the question of Lauenburg's treachery may be consid- 
ered an open one. The imperialist soldiers did not believe that the king 
could be alone with so small an escort. They, however, took Gustavus to be 
an officer of rank until he cried out, " I am the king of Sweden, and seal with 
my blood the Protestant religion and the liberties of Germany. Alas ! my 
poor queen ! " The imperialist soldiers then killed and stripped him, and the 
tide of battle rolled on past the dead body. The faithful page, who alone re- 
mained with Gustavus, tried vainly to mount the king upon his own horse. 
The poor lad died, five days afterward, in Naumburg, of his wounds. 

So fell Gustavus Adolphus. His own side were startled when the 
king's horse rushed back into their lines. They did not know that he was 
dead ; they supposed him taken prisoner. A kind of fury possessed the 
troops, and the spirit of Gustavus rendered them invincible. VVallenstein, de- 
spite this advantage, could not claim a victory at Lutzen. 

Wallenstein was well pleased when the news of the death of Gustavus 
Adolphus was brought to him. He said in his coarse proverb-like way, " Two 
cocks could not exist together on one dunghill." 

Charles XII., the "Madman of the North," was born in 1682 and as- 
cended the throne in 1697. During his minority Russia, Denmark and Po- 
land combined to despoil him of many of his dominions ; but their suc- 
cesses were of short duration. At the head of his troops he advanced 
from one triumph to another, until, intoxicated with success, he determined 
upon the conquest of Russia, which ended in a terrible defeat at Pultowa 
(1709). He was finally assassinated during the siege of Frederikshald in 1718. 

According to agreement, Norway was allotted to Sweden in 1814 by the 
coalition against Napoleon, in payment for her aid in his downfall ; and in 
1818 Bernadotte, who had been one of the great emperor's generals, but who 
had joined the coalition against him, ascended the throne with the title of 
Charles XIV. 

Though Denmark looks such a little country on the map, and indeed lost 
part of her possessions, Sleswig-Holstein, in the war with Prussia, of 1864, she 
is an active, intelligent state. 

The soil of Denmark is very sandy in parts, and flat where the peninsula 
abuts upon the mainland ; but the islands are extremely fertile, and the Danish 
farms are well cultivated ; and there is a fair amount of manufactures. The 
Dane of to-day is no longer the fiery warrior he once was ; but brave, patient, 
thoughtful. He is thrifty rather than particularly industrious ; politically calm 



330 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



and constant in all his affections. Quiet as he seems, the Dane has yet a 
fund of poetry possible of awakening, since in one generation he has had for 
countrymen Thorwaldsen, the sculptor, and Hans Christian Andersen, whose 
beautiful stories have long been so popular in England. Thorwaldsen lived 
and v^'orked at Rome ; but came back to end his days in his native land, and 
was received with an ardent enthusiasm, of which the history of nations in 

relation to their great men affords but few 
parallels. 

The celebrated astronomer Tycho Brahe, 
remarkable for his invention of instruments 
and his numerous works, was a native of 
Denmark. He was born December 14th, 
1546, and died Octobor 24th, 1601. 

The character of the Norwegian is 




TYCHO BRAHE. 



moulded by that of the bold, mountainous 
country which he inhabits — a country of for- 
ests and of fiords. A fiord is a long arm of 
the sea, stretching so far inland that it comes 
to resemble an immense winding salt-water 
lake. The coast of Norway is indented like 
a huge saw with these fiords, and the coasts 
are inhabited by farmers and fishermen. 
Among the Norwegian mountaineers none exhibit a truer picture of the 
grand nature which surrounds them, than the race which inhabits the valley 
of Hallingdal. They are quick, intelligent, robust and agile. The violent 
jumps and leaps, which distinguish their national dances, are so famous over 
the whole country, that these dances have got the general name of " Hailing," 
the name also of the music that accompanies them. These dancers are said 
to touch the rafters of the ceiling with their toes. 

The general character of the Swede is not much different from that of the 
Norwegian, only it is more lowland. Stockholm is a large flourishing town, 
the seat of the royalty of Sweden and Norway, where the ladies talk good 
French and the arts are held in high esteem. 

The climate of Sweden influences not only the country, but the town life. 
Sledge-driving is the favorite amusement of the Stockholm ladies during 
the winter months, and the more severe the cold the greater the enjoyment 
of the season. The goodness of a winter in Sweden depends on the hardness 
of the ice and the quantity of the snow. Without these, winter trade and 
winter pleasures would be sadly impeded. The spring thaw is very unpleas- 
ant, the deep snow in the streets of Stockholm has to be broken up with pick- 
axes, and what we call spring weather hardly exists. As soon as the disagree- 
able thaw is over, summer is come. 



/:^ 




LAKE OF GENEVA. 



SWITZERLAND. 



magne. 



Q^vrps^^T^ARLY in the Christian era Helvetia, which was peopled chiefly by 
^3!<iD'ifr) Gallic tribes, formed a part of the Roman empire. Then, over- 
't^ run by various barbarous races, it was included in the kingdom 
of Burgundy the Less, and as such fell under the rule of Charle- 
After his death it was annexed to the Romano-Germanic 
empire. Conspicuous among the many small sovereignties and states, 
into which it was broken even while owning a sort of dependence on the 
empire, were the Forest Cantons of Schweitz, Uri and Underwalden, clustered 
round the southern shore of Lake Lucerne. 

In 1273, Count Rodolph of Hapsburg (Hawk's Castle on the Aar in north 
Switzerland) was elected King of the Romans, or Emperor of Germany. He 
is distinguished in history as the founder of the imperial house of Austria. 
Lord of many lands and towns in Switzerland, he held besides, by the free 
choice of the foresters themselves, the advocacy or protectorship of the Forest 
States. He did not allow his elevation to the imperial throne to sever the 
ties which bound him to the mountain-land. He spent much time among the 
Swiss ; and the many benefits and enlarged privileges they received from him 
were repaid on their part by unbroken affection and unbounded trust. 

But when, in 1298, his son Albert, Duke of Austria — which had been taken 
by Rodolph from Bohemia — was made emperor, a gloom fell upon Switzer- 
land. It soon became clear that his design was to make himself despotic 
master of all the land. The Forest Cantons were placed under two bailiffs 

(331) 



332 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

or governors, Gessler and Beringer, whose insolent tyranny soon became 
intolerable. 

Three of the oppressed foresters, Walter Furst, Arnold von Melchthal 
and Werner Stauffacher, met to plan the deliverance of their country. On a 
November night, in the meadow of Riuli, by Lake Lucerne, these three pa- 
triots, in the presence of thirty tried friends, swore beneath the starry sky to 
die, if need were, in defence of their freedom. And all the thirty joining in 
the solemn vow, the new year's night was fixed for striking the first blow. 

Meanwhile Gessler, the Austrian bailiff was slain by one of the thirty^ 
William Tell, a native of Burglen, near Altorf, and famous over all the coun- 
try for his skill with the cross-bow. The romantic story, upon which, how- 
ever, some doubt has been cast by modern historians, runs thus : 

Gessler, to try the temper of the Swiss, set up the ducal hat of Austria on 
a pole, in the market-place of Altorf and commanded that all who passed it 
should bow in homage. Tell, passing one day with his littles on, made no 
sign of reverence. He was at once dragged before Gessler, who doomed 
him to die, unless with a bolt from his cross-bow he could hit an apple placed 
on his son's head. The boy was bound, and the apple balanced. Tell, led a 
long way off, aiming for some breathless seconds, cleft the little fruit to the 
core. But, while shouts of joy were ringing from the gathered crowd, Gess- 
ler saw that Tell had a second arrow, which he had somehow contrived to 
hide while choosing one for his trying shot. "Why," cried the bailiff, "hast 
thou that second arrow ? " And the bold answer was, " For thee, if the first 
had struck my child." 

In a violent rage, Gessler then ordered Tell to be chained, and carried 
across the lake to the prison of Kussnacht. A storm arising when they were 
half-way over, huge waves threatened to swamp the boat. By order of the 
governor, Tell, whose knowledge of the lake was remarkable, was unchained 
and placed at the rudder. Resolved on a bold dash for liberty, he steered for 
a rocky shelf which jutted into the waters, sprang ashore, and was soon lost 
among the mountain glens. And some time after, hiding in a woody pass 
near Kussnacht, he shot the tyrant Gessler dead with his unerring cross-bow. 

Thus for a few hours Tell shone out in the story of the world with a lustre 
that has never since grown dim. Darkness rests on his after-life. We know 
nothing more than that he fought in the great battle of Morgarten, and that 
in 1350 he was drowned in a flooded river. 

The dawn of 1308 saw the foresters in arms. The Austrian castles were 
seized. The Alps were all alight with bonfires. Albert, hurriedly gathering 
an army, was advancing to crush the rising, when he was assassinated at the 
Reuss by his nephew, Duke John of Suabia. To their lasting honor, be it 
said, that the three revolted cantons refused to shelter the murderer^ who lived 
and died miserably in Italy. 



SWITZERLAND. 333 

Three great battles — Morgarten, Sempach and Nefels — mark the steps by 
■which the brave Swiss achieved their independence. 

Seven years after Albert's death, his son, Duke Leopold of Austria, re- 
solving to pierce the mountains of Schweitz and punish the audacious herds- 
men, left Zug with an army of 1 5,000 men, carrying great coils of rope to 
hang his prisoners. The pass of Morgarten, which ran for three miles be- 
tween the steep rocks of Mount Sattel and the little Lake Egeri, was the only 
way by which heavy cavalry could pass into the doomed canton. With the 
dawn of a November morning, as the sun shone red through a frosty fog, the 
Austrians entered the pass — a host of steel-clad knights in front, and the 
footmen following in close order. Their advance was known and prepared 
for. Fourteen hundred herdsmen, who had commended their cause and them- 
selves to the God of battles, lined the rocky heights. Fifty exiles from 
Schweitz, burning to regain an honored place among their countrymen, o-ath- 
ered on a jutting crag that overhung the entrance of the defile, and when the 
Austrians were well in the trap, hurled down great rocks and beams of wood 
upon the close-packed ranks. Amid the confusion, which was increased by 
the fog, the Swiss rushed from the heights, and with their halberts and iron- 
shod clubs beat down the knights, who fell back upon the footmen, tram- 
pling them to death. It was a woful day for Austria, and for chivalry, when 
the steel cuirass and the knightly lance went down before the pikes and clubs 
of a few untrained footmen. Duke Leopold scarcely saved himself by a 
headlong flight over the mountains to Winterthur, where he arrived late in the 
evening, a haggard, beaten man. 

The valor of the Schweitzers was so remarkable in this batde, and through- " 
out the great future struggle, that the name of their canton was extended to 
the whole country, henceforth named Switzerland. 

The three cantons renewed their solemn league of mutual defence. Lu- 
cerne joined the Confederation in 1335 ; Zurich and Zug in 1351 ; Glarus and 
Berne soon followed, thus completing a list of the eight ancient cantons of the 
infant republic. A treaty, ratified at Lucerne, is remarkable as being a dis- 
tinct acknowledgment on the part of Austria that the Swiss had triumphed and 
were free. The ceaseless industry and steady economy of the mountaineers 
proved them worthy of the freedom they had so bravely won. 

But their task was not yet done. Bent on crushing the Confederation 
with one terrible blow, Leopold, Duke of Suabia, one of the Hapsburg line, 
■marched from Baden towards Lucerne. He found his way barred at Sem- 
pach by 1,300 men, who held the wooded heights round the lake. The Aus- 
trian force consisted of 4,000 horse and 1,400 foot. At the hastily summoned 
council the arrogant nobles were loud in their cry that the peasant rabble 
should be crushed at once, without waiting for the rest of the army. And 
rashly the duke gave orders for the fight. As the broken mountain-ground 



334 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

was unfit for cavalry movements, the knights, dismounting, formed a soHd 
mass of steel, blazing in the hot harvest sun. 

A short prayer, and the Swiss were formed for the charge. On they came, 
the gallant mountain-men, some with boards on their left arms instead of 
shields. But the iron wall stood fast, with its bristling fence unbroken ; sixty 
of the little band lay bleeding on the earth ; the wings of the Austrian line were 
curving round to hem them in a fatal ring, when Arnold von Winkelried, a 
knight of Underwalden, dashing with open arms on the Austrian lances, swept 
together as many as he could reach, and, as they pierced his brave breast, bore 
their points with him to the ground. Like lightning the Swiss were through 
the gap ; the Austrian line was broken ; all was rout and dismay. Two thou- 
sand knights perished on the field. Duke Leopold himself died while gal- 
lantly defending the torn and bloody banner of Austria. 

This brilliant success was followed, two years later, by another at Nefels, 
in which 6,000 Austrians were scattered by a handful of Swiss. Here, as at 
Morgarten, rocks flung from the heights caused the first disorder in the Aus- 
trian lines. 

At the diet of Zurich, held in 1393, a general law-martial, called the Sem- 
pach Convention, was framed to bind the eight cantons together in firmer 
league. It enacted that it was the duty of every true Switzer " to avoid un- 
necessary feuds, but where a war was unavoidable, to unite cordially and 
loyally together ; not to flee in any battle before the contest should be decided, 
even if wounded, but to remain masters of the field; not to attempt pillage 
before the general had sanctioned it; and to spare churches, convents, and de- 
fenceless females." 

So Switzerland shook off the yoke of Austria; and never since, but once, 
when for a time Napoleon laid his giant grasp upon her, has the liberty won 
at Morgarten and Sempach been imperilled. 

The land in Switzerland is exceedingly subdivided ; the farmers own their 
own ground, which is chiefly pasture land. When the snow melts, the flocks 
are sent up to graze on higher levels ; in winter they are brought down and 
housed. A great staple of production and commerce is cheese. 

The occupations of the people are exceedingly various ; they are herdsmen, 
hunters, guides, and makers of clocks and watches. In Geneva the watch 
trade is greatly developed, and gives rise to large exports. The people of 
Berne are intelligent and progressive, influenced by the excellent university 
there ; and the town ranks the first in Switzerland. Geneva is, however, much 
resorted to by foreigners as a residence. Every summer, tourists by the thou- 
sand pour into the Swiss valleys ; then the landlords open the huge hotels, 
many of which have been shut up in the winter time, and make up hundreds 
of beds, and kill beasts, and lay in provisions for the iable-d' holes, where all 
the guests dine in long rows. Then the men of the villages at the foot of the 




(.iJS) 



336 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Alps bestir themselves to go up as guides with adventurous travellers. The 
majority of these ascents are accomplished in safety, but sometimes fearful 
falls occur, in which not only the traveller but the guide loses his life ; and then 
there is mourning in the village, and a weeping widow and orphans. The 
guides generally tie the travellers together with themselves by a long rope, so 
that if one man slips he is upheld by the others ; and so they go winding up 
and up, often cutting steps in the steep snow with their hatchets, until they 
reach the top. 

The beautiful valley of Chamouni lies 3,000 feet above the level of the 
sea, and is one of the most popular places of resort in Switzerland. Near 
Chamouni is Mont Blanc, the far-famed "Monarch of Mountains." The 
Lake of Geneva or Leman, at the south-west of Switzerland, lies about 
1,230 feet above the level of the sea, and has about the same number of 

feet in depth ; its waters are a beauti- 
ful blue, and it is considered by many 
the most beautiful of Swiss lakes. 

Lord Byron passed the summer 
of 18 1 6 on the banks of the Lake of 
Geneva ; and here he wrote his third 
canto of " Childe Harold," his " Man- 
fred," and his " Prisoner of Chillon ; " 
and the sublime scenery oi this re- 
gion has been best described in his 
passionate poetry. 

On the lake is the castle of Chil- 
lon, immortalized by Byron. His 
name may be seen here cut in the pil- 
lars in connection with those of Eu- 
gene Sue, Victor Hugo and George 
Sand. Here Bonnivard, a Genevese 
patriot, was imprisoned by order of Charles V. of Savoy for six long years. 

Many Swiss have distinguished themselves in intellectual achieve- 
ments. Jean Jacques Rousseau and Sismondi were both of this nation. 
Calvin was a preacher at Geneva, and St. Francois de Sales was a 
Catholic bishop of the diocese. In natural philosophy many Swiss have ex- 
celled ; in art they have been less known. Tiny as their country is, they 
have always been a very creditable and much respected part of the great 
European family. Nor would they exchange their Alps and vales for any 
country in the world. When absent, their home-sickness is proverbial, and 
soldiers have sometimes died of it. 




CALVIN. 



THE NETHERLANDS. 




"In the market-place of 

Bruges stands the belfry, 

old and brown ; 
Thrice consumed and thrice 

rebuilded, still it watches 

o'er the town. 
As the summer morn was 

breaking, on that lofty 

tower I stood, 
And the world threw off the 

darkness like the weeds 

of widowhood." 

— Loiigfellotv. 



1^ OLLAND and Bel 

li' " 

ly only one country, the 
Netherlands, and ' were 
for a long time nnder 
the dominion of Spain. 
They are, however now 
divided, and present some 
difference in the charac- 
ters of the people, as well 
as in religious views. 
Belgium is a Catho- 
lic country, and possesses the most beautiful old 
churches. The relioious orders "are so abundant, 
both in extent and variety, that, like that of the celes- 
tial luminaries, the number is bewildering to the un- 
practised eye." 

Sunday is better kept in Belgium than in France, and really 
is a day of pious rest. In fact, considering how near it is to France, and that the 
flat fronder provinces are covered with a network of railways, encouraging 
constant communication, it is very singular to see how much of the quaint old 
German spirit lingers in the smaller country, and how serious and quiet she 
is. Doubtless, had the French occupation under Napoleon continued, the con- 
stant pressure of French institudons would in time have somewhat assimilated 
the habits of the two peoples. The French, however, met with a desperate 
resistance, which Henri Conscience has well described in his "Peasants' War," 
and when Napoleon was struck down, Belgium was set free ; being, in the 
•11 . (:'37) 



338 



THE GOI.DICN rRKASURY. 



first instance, united with Holland, and in 1830 created into a separate king- 
dom under King Leopold. 

Brussels, the capital, is a lively town, and is said by some to be a smaller 
Paris ; but though the new quarters and boulevards might for a moment 
deceive the traveller a walk into the grand old market-place would soon 
undeceive him and show him he was in Belgium. It is a sort of neutral 
orround — French exiles, who do not like London, settling here. Books for- 




A STREET IN GHENT. 

bidden in France are turned out of the Brussels presses ; and reprints of Eng- 
lish and American books are also largely made. Brussels is, moreover, a gay 
town in regard to theatres, concerts, and balls. Ghent, on the contrary, is 
rich and manufacturing. Her burghers have been solid people since the 
days of Philip Van Artevelde, the warrior-brewer. There are crowds of tall, 
smoking, manufacturing chimneys in Ghent; cottons, woollens, and iron work 
being produced here. Louvain is the seat of a great university. Bruges is 
quiet, and full of institutions for the poor, the sick and the insane. 



t> 



THE NETHERLANDS. 33& 

The Hollander or Dutchman is noted for his pertinacity of character. 
Holland or Hollow-land is so-called because large tracts of the land are liter- 
ally below the sea-level, and the ocean restrained by a gigantic dyke, kept up 
with the o-reatest care. Who but Dutchmen would have had the dowered 
courage and perseverance necessary for such a work, especially as they have 
been nearly drowned out more than once? But though the land be flat, there 
are plenty of picturesque things upon it. Spires, church towers, bright farm- 
houses, their windows glancing in the sun ; long rows of willow trees, their 
bluish foliage ruffling up white in the breeze ; grassy embankments of a tender 
vivid green, partly hiding the meadows behind, and crowded with glittering 
gaudy-painted gigs and wagons, loaded with rosy-cheeked, laughing country 
ofirls, decked out in ribbons of many more colors than the rainbow, all stream- 
ing in the wind — these are the objects which strike the eye of the traveller from 
seaward, and form a gay view of the coast of Holland as he steams along its 
coast and up its rivers. 

The Dutchman's ancestors were a great commercial people. They had 
colonies in the eastern seas, and fleets upon the waters, and were the Vene- 
tians of the North. They are no longer this, and the ancient greatness has 
departed ; but they are still an active, productive people, of very curious man- 
ners and habits, and wonderfully unlike the rest of the world. One of their 
characteristics is exceeding cleanliness. The house-washing- of Holland is 
proverbial. Not only the insides, but the outsides, are sluiced and mopped, 
and the brick pavements shine with water. In fact, Dutch tiles were made to- 
be washed. 

Although we have been of necessity brief in our description of the state 
of Holland, we will not omit the legend firmly believed in by sailors from gen- 
eration to generation — that of the "Flying Dutchman," the "Phantom Ship." 
The sailor believes that a ghostly vessel, governed by a ghostly admiral in 
full Dutch costume, haunts the high seas, having been condemned for mis- 
deeds done in the flesh, and the wood, to drive eternally before the gale. 
Again and again have mariners declared that they have been starded by the 
sudden bearing-down upon them of a huge, square-built barque, which, when 
they hailed, they saw to be a ship of ghostly transparence, so that the moon 
could be seen through her sails. This vision they consider an omen of mis- 
fortune ; and its appearance at midnight, or looming in a dense fog, strikes 
terror into the seaman's heart. It is wonderful how such tales, once believed, 
propagate themselves ; so that many a harmless ship, passing rapidly and in 
silence before another, has doubdess been firmly believed to be the dreaded 
"Flying Dutchman." This legend of the sea appears to have remotely sug- 
gested Coleridge's ballad of the "Ancient Mariner." 




HEIDELBERG CASTLE, FROM THE NECK.AR. 



GERMANY. 




*HE startlingr events produced by the Austrian and Prussian war 
of 1866, and still later by the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and 
1 87 1, have realized the fondest dreams of German writers and 
German politicians, that of a common nationality. The wildest 
hopes of Prussia have been realized, and not only is Germany to- 
day united (with the exception of that portion which belongs to the Austrian 
Empire), but two of France's most populous provinces, viz., Alsace and Lor- 
raine, comprising 5,665 square miles (nearly 1,000 square miles larger than 
the State of Connecticut), and containing over one million and a half of in- 
habitants, have been added to its territory. 

The states constituting the modern German Empire extend over a large 
area of Central Europe, between the Baltic sea on the north, and Austria 
and Switzerland on the south ; from the Netherlands and the North sea on 

(340) 



GERMANY. 341 

the west, to Austria and Russia on the east, embracing nearly a quarter of a 
million of square miles. 

Within this extensive range the people are nearly throughout German, 
and, with some minor modifications, the language, customs, usages and man- 
ners are the same. It is in regard to relis^ious and social institutions that the 
chief differences are to be noted. Southern Germany is Catholic ; Northern 
Germany has for the most part embraced the doctrines of the Lutheran or 
Reformed Church. 

The German nation has a better right than any other in Christendom to 
take pride in its reigning House. For nine centuries the Hohenzollerns — as 
successively counts [Gi'a/en) of Zollern, burggraves of Nuremberg, prince- 
electors of Brandenburg and kings of Prussia — have borne a prominent and 
ever-increasing part in German history ; and in our own days the head of the 
family has become hereditary head of the newly-created Empire of Germany. 
Countinor from Frederick I., who ei^ht centuries ao;o became Bury^orrave of 
Nuremberg, down to Kaiser William, we find some five-and-tvventy names, 
mostly in direct succession from father to son. Among these are many able 
men, only a few weak ones, and not a single absolute blockhead or scoundrel. 
All of them are of pure German blood, for scarcely a Hohenzollern has taken 
any other than a German wife. 

The present ruler of Prussia is Frederick William, born March 22d, 1797. 
He became regent October 9th, 1858, and succeeded his brother January 2d, 
1 861, under the title of William I., since which time he has accepted the im- 
perial crown. His son, the prince imperial, married the Princess Victoria, 
daughter of the Queen of England, January 25th, 1858. 

The most prominent struggle in German history during the seventeenth 
century was what is known as the "Thirty Years' war," of which Gustavus 
Adolphus, the King of Sweden, on the one side, and Albert, Count Wallen- 
stein, a rich and distinguished Bohemian officer, on the other, were the princi- 
pal characters. Gustavus Adolphus was killed at the battle of Lutzen, which 
was fought November 6th, 1632 ; but his troops gained the victory. In 1634, 
Wallenstein, being then fifty years of age, was assassinated. France, Spain, 
Italy and the Netherlands, as well as Sweden and the various German na- 
tions, were all drawn into this war, which was really a conflict between 
Protestantism and Catholicism. 

The peace of Westphalia, signed at Munster, closed this eventful war. 
The leading terms of this celebrated treaty, which is looked upon as having 
laid the groundwork of modern Europe, were — i. That France should retain 
Metz, Toul, Verdun and the whole of Alsace except Strasburg and a few 
other cities ; receiving, instead of these, two fortresses — Breisach and Phil- 
ippsburg, which were regarded as the keys of Upper Germany. 2. That 
Holland should be a free state, independent alike of Spain and of the empire. 



342 ■ THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

3. That the Swiss Cantons should be free. 4. That Sweden, receiving Stral- 
sund, Wismar and other important posts on the Baltic, should also be paid 
^5,000,000, as indemnification for the expenses of the war. 

The central point of the history of Germany in the eighteenth centur)', was 
the Seven Years' war, of which Frederick the Great, of Prussia, was the prin- 
cipal hero. In this war, Austria, France, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Po- 
land were arrayed against Prussia and England. In this war the life-blood 
of more than a million had been shed, but the face of Germany, on the whole, 
remained unchanged. 

The beginning of the present century was signalized by the wars with 
Napoleon I. In the late Franco-German war, to which we will allude further 
•on, Germany again wrested from France what had been ceded to her at the 
peace of Westphalia. 

Frederick the Great of Prussia was one of the cleverest and most arbitrary 
of mankind ; he raised the country from a small German kingdom to be the 
rival of Austria. He was brought up by a strict, tyrannical father, King Wil- 
liam, and was obliged to rise to a signal every morning, and to be clean, neat 
and completely dressed in ten minutes. When a grown-up man, Frederick 
set to work to make all Prussians like himself and the national character has 
always preserved the stamp. The people look as if they rose to a minute, 
and turned themselves out perfectly tidy in ten minutes. They are accurate. 

The Prussian provinces on the Rhine are somewhat different. In Prussia 
proper the majority are Lutheran Protestants, and modern in their ways. In 
the Rhineland they are chiefly Catholics, and the country is full of old legends 
and quaint traditions. 

Our American poet Longfellow has written a charming book, called "Hy- 
perion," about the Rhine and the old cities on its banks ; and the French poet 
Victor Hugo has written another. The Rhine is bordered by steep hills, on 
which the vine is cultivated and forms the great occupation of the people. 
On family feast-days it is pretty to see fathers and mothers and children sit- 
ting in the inn-gardens drinking coffee together. The young men wear long 
beards and smoke a great deal. 

One of the orreat industrial centres of Prussia is the mininy; district of the 
Hartz, on the confines of Prussia and what was once the Kingdom of Hanover. 
This mountainous country, of which the Brocken is the chief feature, is rich in 
silver, lead, and copper ; and also in wild legends, ascribing the possession of 
untold treasures to the demons of the hills. 

The greatest of German legends is the old epic poem, the " Nibelungen- 
lied," or the Song of the Nibelungen, one of the greatest poems of the 
world. Siegfried is represented as having slain a dragon, vanquished the an- 
cient fabulous royal race of the Nibelungen, and taken away their immense 
treasures of gold and gems. He wooes, and finally wins, the beautiful Chriem- 



GERMANY. 



343 



hild, but is treacherously killed by the fierce and covetous Hagen, who seeks 
the treasures of the Nibelungen, and who skilfully draws from Chriemhild the 
secret of the spot where alone Siegfried is mortal, and fatally plunges a lance 
between his shoulders 
in a royal chase. 

Berlin, the capital of 
Prussia, is situated on 
the river Spree, a small 
sluggish stream, and is 
ordinarily the residence 
of the monarch. It is 
one of the largest and 
handsomest cities in Eu- 
rope, being about twelve 
miles in circumference. 
It has a garrison of 20,- 
000 soldiers. The Spree 
intersects the city, insu- 
lating one of its quarters, 
and is crossed by more 
than fifty bridges in va- 
rious parts of the city. 
The name of this river 
has given rise to the 
joke that Berlin is al- 
ways drunk, because at 
all times on the Spree. 

Berlin has the air of 
the metropolis of a king- 
dom of yesterday : no 
Gothic churches, narrow street m BcrvL^ix-.. 

streets, fantastic gable-ends, no historical stone and lime, no remnants of the 
picturesque age, to recall the olden time. Voltaire in satin breeches and 
powdered peruke, Frederick the Great in jack-boots and pigtail, and the 
French classical age of Louis XIV., are the men and times Berlin calls up to 
the traveller. Berlin is a city of palaces; that is, of huge, barrack-like edifices, 
with pillars, statues, etc., etc. 

The fixtures which strike the eye in the streets of Berlin are vast fronts of 
buildings, ornaments, statues, inscriptions, a profusion of gilding, guard-houses, 
sentry-bo.xes ; the movables are sentries presenting arms every minute, offi- 
cers with feathers and orders passing unceasingly, hackney droskies ratding 
about, and numbers of well-dressed people. The streets are spacious and 




344 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Straight, with broad margins on each side for foot-passengers, and a band of 
plain flag-stones on these margins makes them much more walkable than the 
streets of most continental towns. 

About sixty miles from Berlin, Wittenberg is situated. This town is noted 
for being the place where Martin Luther commenced his war against the evils 
and abuses of the Church of Rome. He was professor of philosophy and 
theology in the University of Wittenberg, the same school where Shake- 
speare's Hamlet studied. The Schloss Kirche is the principal building. It 
was against the doors of this church that Luther hung up his ninety-five argu- 
ments against the Church of Rome, offering to defend them against all-comers. 
In the centre of the church are two tablets set into the floor, pointing out the 
spot where Luther and his friend Melancthon lie buried. 

Martin Luther was born November loth, 1484, in Eisleben, a town in 
Prussian Saxony. He was the son of a miner. He studied at Eisenach, beg- 
ging in the meantime to obtain subsistence. A thunderbolt having killed one 

of his companions at his 



side, caused him to em- 
brace religion. He en- 
tered the convent of the 
Augustins, and became 
professor of theology in the 
University of Wittenberg. 
Having studied the writ- 
ings of John Huss, he rap- 
idly acquired a taste for his 
opinions. The sale of in- 
dulgences by the pope 
furnished him an occasion 
to open the controversy. 
He published an argument 
in which he denied their 
efficacy. The quarrel soon 
became excited. Luther, 
who at first attacked but 
the abuses of the church, 
now attacked the authority 
of the pope, the belief in 
purgatory, the celibacy of 
the priests, the possession 
of temporal wealth, the 
He married a nun named 
He was excommunicated 




MARTIN LUTHER. 



doctrine of transubstantiation, and the mass 
Catherine de Bore, by whom he liad six children 



GERMANY. 345 

by the pope, and Henry VIII., of England, wrote strongly against him. He 
burnt the bulls of the pope, and responded to Henry VIII. in the strongest 
terms. The Duchy of Sa.xony, Denmark and Sweden took the part of Luther 
in this quarrel. At the Diet of Worms he supported his opinions. The first 
Diet of Spire, held in 1526, acknowledged the liberty of conscience ; that held 
in 1529, desiring to rescind the acknowledgment of the first, the Lutherans 
protested against it, from whence is derived the name of Protestants. Luther 
died at Eisleben, in 1564, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was a man 
of impetuous eloquence, and exercised an irresistible influence on the multitude. 

Eisenach, the capital of Saxe-Weimar, contains 13,000 inhabitants. It is 
the principal town in the Thuringian forest, and has been rendered famous 
from the fact of Martin Luther being detained a prisoner in its Castle of Wart- 
burg, which is situated about one mile and a half south of the town. 

On the 4th of March, 1521, as Luther was returning to his home from the 
Diet of Worms, where, in defiance of all threats and the pope's excommuni- 
cation, he had boldly proclaimed the Protestant religion, as he was entering 
the borders of the wood his party was attacked by a body of armed knights 
and dispersed ; he alone was made prisoner. He was conducted to the Cas- 
tle of Wartburg, where he discovered the whole affair was managed by the 
order of his friend, the Elector of Saxony, who was present at the Diet when 
he left. Akhough the Emperor Charles V. had given Luther assurance of 
safe-conduct, a decree for his arrest was instantly sent after him, and his sen- 
tence of death decided on. The elector's band reached him before the war- 
rant of arrest, and he was carried in secret to Wartburg, where he remained 
for ten months. He cultivated mustaches, and passed at the castle for a 
young nobleman, thus screened by the friendly Elector of Saxony until the 
first fury of the storm had passed. The chamber which Luther occupied in 
the castle contains his portrait and that of his father and mother. This room 
was the scene of his conflict with Satan. There is a story told and believed, 
that the evil one appeared before him gnashing his teeth and threatening 
him with vengeance ; whereupon Luther, who had defeated his foes with pen 
and ink, thought he would try the ink alone on the devil, and, seizing the ink- 
stand, he hurled it with all his power at the head of his satanic majesty, hit- 
ting his — imagination and the wall, making a greater impression on the latter 
than Satan did on the former. The hole in the wall is now shown to the 
traveller. 

In another part of the castle is the picture of St. Elizabeth, of Thuringia, 
formerly a resident of Wartburg, whose husband was as hard-hearted as she 
was kind and charitable to the poor. On one occasion, when she had her 
apron filled with food which she was about to bestow on the hungry, her hus- 
band caught her in the act and demanded what she had in her apron ; she 
replied, " Flowers," when, thinking to detect her in a falsehood, he tore open 



346 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



her apron, when, lo and behold ! the bread and cheese were transformed into 
roses and hlies. She stands in the picture as if trembling for fear they will 
change again. 

Dresden, the capital of the Kingdom of Saxony, is delightfully situated on 
both banks of the Elbe. It has 177,025 inhabitants. Its military museum 
outstrips all others in the variety and quantity of its offensive and defensive 
weapons; in its accoutrements of the tournament; the richness and skill 
evinced in the decoration of the armor and trappings both of man and horse ; 
and the relics it possesses of the greatest warriors of different ages. Amono- 
the relics are the robes worn by Augustus II., surnamed " Strong," at his 
coronation as King of Poland ; the horseshoe which he broke with his 




MAYENCE. 



fingers ; his cuirass, weighing 100 pounds, and his iron cap, twenty-five pounds. 
He is said to have lifted a trumpeter in full armor, and held him aloft in the 
palm of his hand ; to have twisted the iron banister of a stair into a rope ; to 
have made love to a coy beauty by presenting in one hand a bag of gold, and 
breaking with the other the horseshoe mentioned above. Judging from the 
great weight of his armor and weapons, he must have been a man of giant 
strength. There is also a saddle of Napoleon's, his boots worn at the battle 
of Dresden, and the shoes worn at his coronation. 

The city of Mayence is the largest place in the Grand-Duchy of Hesse- 
Darmstadt. It was annexed to Prussia in 1866. It contains a population of 
56,000, including the garrison, which consisted of 7,000 soldiers previous to 
its Prussian annexation. Its fortifications are of great strength. Mayence is 
a city of great antiquity ; under Charlemagne and his successors it became 



GERMANY. 347 

the first ecclesiastical city of the Roman Empire, and was long the seat of a 
sovereign archbishopric. In modern times it became celebrated for the mem- 
orable siege it endured, when it was successfully defended by the French 
troops who garrisoned it. 

Among the principal edifices of Mayence, which are of great antiquity, is 
the cathedral, a vast pile of red sandstone buildings, begun in the tenth and 
finished in the eleventh century; it has suffered considerable damage at dif- 
ferent times, having been burned by the Prussians in 17S3, and used as a bar- 
rack by the French in 1813. The interior is filled with the monuments of the 
different electors of Mayence, who always presided at the election of the em- 




FIRST PRINTING-PRESS. 



peror, and were the archbishops and first princes of the German Empire. The 
site formerly occupied by the dwelling-house of Gutenberg, the inventor of 
printing, a native of the town, may still be seen. With Gutenberg was asso- 
ciated John Faust, a goldsmith and engraver. Faust died at Paris in 1466. 

Luther believed that he threw ink at the devil and forced him to flee ; but 
since the invention of printing the world has been really throwing ink at the 
devil, Ignorance, by means of the first printing-press, and is fast driving him 
away. The age of the invention of printing produced many great names in 
Germany, as well as in other countries. Albert Durer, one of the greatest 



348 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



painters and engravers, was born at Nuremberg, May 20th, 1471, and died in 
1528. Nicholas Copernicus, the promulgator of the true system of as- 
tronomy, was born at Thorn, in Prussia, in 1472, and died in 1543. Following 
Copernicus came the astronomer John Kepler, who has been called the 
" Lawgiver of the Heavens." The three laws which lie at the basis of all 
true astronomical science were discovered after seventeen long years of labor 
by this great man. His exultation when he found that " the anguish and the 
sweat of years " had brought him at last to see the truth was unbounded. 
" Nothing holds me," he wrote ; " I will indulge my sacred fury. ... If you 
forgive me, I rejoice ; if you are angry, I can bear it. The die is cast ; the 
book is written, to be read either now or by posterity, I care not which. It 
may well wait a century for a reader, since God has waited 6,000 years for an 
observer." 





COPERNICUS 



KEPLER. 



The famous town of Weimar is situated on the Ilm, in the midst of beau- 
tiful groves and handsome grounds. Its population is 15,000. It possesses 
great interest as the residence of some of the most distinguished literary men 
of Germany, drawn thither by the enlightened patronage of the grand duke. 
Among the great names thus connected with it are those of Schiller, Goethe, 
Herder and Wieland. 

Schiller's remark during his first visit to Weimar, "An affair of the heart 
is an easy matter here ; scarce a woman without her history," proved too true 
of Goethe, Germany's greatest mind, " whose lute was a woman's broken 
heart." He was then in the full bloom of a manhood whose like literary his- 
tory has rarely seen. With a face more beautiful than Byron's or Milton's, 
nature had endowed him with a physique denied to either. The waving 
brown hair, the soft dark eyes, the Apollo-like profile, seemed Cupid's ar- 
rows, which pierced the hearts of men and women alike. As a specimen of 
Goethe's poetry we give Carlyle's favorite poem, translated by himself from 
Goethe, with his comment upon it : 



GERMANY. 



349 



Mason Lodge. 



" The Mason's way.s are 
A type of existence, 
And his persistence 
Is as the days are 
Of men in this world. 

" The future hides in it 
Gladness and sorrow ; 
We press still thorough, 
Naught that abides in it 
Daunting us, onward. 

" And solemn before us 
Veiled the dark portal, 
Goal of all mortals ; 
Stars silent rest o'er us. 
Graves under us silent. 



" While earnest thou gazest 
Comes boding of terror. 
Comes phantasm and error, 
Perplexes the bravest 
With doubt and misgiving. 

" But heard are the voices. 
Heard are the sage's. 
The world's, and the age's. 
Choose well : your choice is 
Brief and yet endless. 

" Here eyes do regard you 
In eternity's stillness ; 
Here is all fulness. 
Ye brave, to reward you. 
Work and despair not." 



"Is not that a piece of psalmody? It seems to me like a piece of march- 
ing music to the great brave Teutonic kindred as they march through 
the waste of time — that section of eternity they were appointed for. Let us 
all sing it and march on cheerful of heart. 'We bid you to hope.' So say 
the voices, do they not? " 

This poem of Goethe's was on Carlyle's lips to the last days of his life. 
When very near the end he quoted the last lines of it when speaking of what 
might lie beyond: "We bid you to hope." 

In the new churchyard outside of Weimar may be seen an admirable ar- 
rangement to prevent the accident of premature burial in cases of suspended 
animation. In a dark chamber, lighted with a small lamp, the body lies in a 
coffin ; in its fingers are placed strings, which communicate with an alarm- 
clock ; the least pulsation of the corpse will ring the bell in an adjoining 
chamber, where a person is placed to watch, when medical attendance is at 
once supplied. There have been several cases where persons supposed to be 
dead were thus saved from premature interment. 

Cologne is one of the most important cities in the Prussian kingdom. It 
is built in the form of a crescent close by the river Rhine, and is strongly for- 
tified, the walls forming a circuit of nearly seven miles. The well-known 
liquid which bears the name of the city {eau de Cologne) is an important pro- 
duction of the place, and is exported in very large quantities. 

The chief glory of Cologne is its magnificent cathedral, or Minster of St. 
Peter, which is one of the most magnificent specimens of Gothic architecture 
in the world. 

Behind the high altar is the Chapel of the Magi, or the Three Kings of 



360 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




Cologne. The custodian will tell you that the silver case contains the bones 
of the three wise men who came from the East to Bethlehem to present 
their presents to the infant Christ, and that the case, which is ornamented 

with precious stones, and the 
surrounding valuables in the 
chapel, are worth ^6,000,000. 
These remains were presented 
to the archbishop of Cologne 
by the Emperor Barbarossa 
when he captured the city of 
Milan, which at that time pos- 
sessed these valuable relics. 
The skulls of the Magi, 
crowned with diamonds, with 
their names written in rubies, 
are shown to the curious. 
Among the numerous relics in 
the sacristy is a bone of St. 
Matthew. 

The church of St. Ursula 
is one of the most remarkable 
siofhts in Cologne. The tra- 
dition of St. Ursula is this : She was the aaughter of the King of Brittany, 
who sailed up the river Rhine as far as Basle, and then, accompanied by 
1 1,000 virgins, made a pilgrimage to Rome ; from Basle she travelled on foot, 
and was received at the Holy City by the pope with great honors. On 
her return the whole party was barbarously murdered by the Huns, because 
they refused to break their vows of chastity. St. Ursula was accompanied by 
her lover, Conan, and an escort of knights. St. Ursula and Conan suffered 
death in the camp of the Emperor Maximin. Ursula was placed in the; calen- 
dar as the patron saint of chastity ; and the bones of all the attendant virgins 
were gathered together, and the present church erected to contain the sacred 
relics. On every side you turn, skulls, arm- and leg-bones meet your eye, 
piled on shelves built in the wall. In every direction these hideous relics 
stare you in the face. Hood says it is the chastest kind of architecture. St. 
Ursula herself is exhibited in a coffin which is surrounded by the skulls of a 
few of her favorite attendants. The room in which she is laid contains nu- 
merous other relics ; among these are the chains with which St. Peter was 
bound, and one of the clay vessels used by the Saviour at the marriage in 
Cana. 

The church of St. Peter will be visited with interest, as it contains not only 
the font in which Rubens was baptized — he was born in Cologne — but also 



COLOGNE CATHEDRAL, SOUTH SIDE 



GERMANY. 



351 



one of his masterpieces, the Crucifixion, presented to the church in which he 
was baptized, a short time before his death. It is used as an altar-piece. 

We will now take a glance at that war which made a united Germany pos- 
sible ; and in doing so we must remember that the Emperor William was a 
full-grown, tall young officer of the Prussian army on the field of Waterloo, 
and shared in the revels after Waterloo with the Czar Alexander, Wellington 
and Blucher, in captured Paris. It seems strange that, at the outset ot his 




PRINCE BISMARCK.. 



military career, he should have taken part in the overthrow of the first French 
empire ; and that the crowning incident of his later years should be the dem- 
olition of the second. And it is one of the most striking evidences of Wil- 
liam's shrewdness and foresight in kingcraft that he should discern the one 
man in all Germany whose brain and will were equal to the task of achieving 
German unity and a restoration of the ancient empire. The appointment of 
Bismarck as his chief adviser proved this. 



352 thp: golden treasury. 

In the nature of things all wars must be studded thick with dramatic inci- 
dents — the eagerness for martial distinction; the whirl and turmoil of the bat- 
tle, the "rapture of the fray," as Kinglake styles it; the spasms of hope of 
success alternating with those of apprehension of defeat ; the long strain of 
suspense; the cheering of the charge and the groaning of the wounded; the 
swelling triumph of the victory or the bitter realization of the defeat — all these 
things present a drama of varied emotional interest, the lurid fascination of 
which never fails to inthrall the world. 

But while this is so, the story of some wars is comparatively prosaic, while 
others teem with sensations outside that of the actual fighting, and so present 
an exceptionally wide range of melodramatic incident. Of no war of modern 
times can this be more truly said than of the Franco-German war of 1 870-1. 
Its story abounds with what in stage parlance are called "situations;" 
its every episode was sensational. It was a strife, not so much of political 
friction, but of great nation against great nation. The very hearts of the 
people were in it: empires and dynasties were the stakes; monarchs and the 
offspring of monarchs were in the field ; it shattered one imperial dynasty and 
it created another. 

The difficulty is not to find its melodramatic incidents, but to make a selec- 
tion of them out of the wealth of those which are most striking. In the early 
days of June, 1870, the atmosphere of Europe is that of profound peace. Earl 
Granville, the British foreign minister, has made the statement that there is 
not a cloud, or the shadow of a cloud, in the political sky. A few days later 
King Wilhelm of Prussia is quietly rusticating at the little watering-place of 
Ems. There besets him there Benedetti, the French ambassador to his court. 
Benedetti demands, in the name of his master, the Emperor Napoleon, that 
King Wilhelm will disavow his sanction to the candidature of his kinsman, 
Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern, for the throne of Spain. Wilhelm replies 
that his .sanction has not been asked, and Prince Leopold simplifies matters, 
and seemingly resolves the difficulty, by declining to be a candidate. But this 
does not satisfy Benedetti's master. Benedetti is instructed to obtain from 
King Wilhelm a categorical promise that, in the future, under no circumstances 
will he permit a German prince to become a candidate for the throne of Spain. 
Then the old man's blood is stirred. He declines to give any such promise. 
Benedetti, pursuant to instruction, persists in the endeavor to exact the promise, 
or to sting Wilhelm into an angry refusal. He accosts the old king on the 
promenade. Wilhelm's face flushes with hot wrath ; but he forgets not the 
dignity of his kingship. Looking over Benedetti as if he were a worm on the 
pavement, he says to his aide-de-camp, Count Lehndorff, "Tell this gentleman 
I have nothing to say to him ! " and then he turns on his heel and stalks away, 
leaving the Frenchman plante la. 

And so begins the war that, sought by that Frenchman's master, is to hurl 



GERMANY. 



353 



the latter from his throne— a war none the less that the declaration of hostili- 
ties comes from France, the preparations for which had been maturing in Ger- 
many, under the superintendence of Moltke and Roon, ever since Bismarck, 
when he left the Tuileries three years before, took away the conviction that 
war between France and Germany was inevitable, and that the task before him 
was to get Germany ready for the contest, postpone the crisis till she was 
ready, and bring it on when that consummation had been attained. Napo- 
leon, Wilhelm and Benedetti were alike the 
puppets and playthings of the great burly 
chancellor. 

"On to Berlin ! " was the cry of the French 
soldiers as they marched along the boule- 
vards of Paris amid the frantic applause 
of the spasmodic boulevardiers. The brag- 
gart cry came from an army that never got 
nearer Berlin than the frontier of France — 
came from an army which Le Boeuf war- 
ranted ready for war to the last button on 
the last soldier's gaiter, but which in reality ^^ 
lacked every attribute of an army save the 
gallant courage that, with all his faults, is 
inherent in the French soldier. In Germany 
there was infinitely less throat-splitting, but 
infinitely more of method and alacrity of 
preparation. Moltke had touched that bell 
of his in his room in the bureau of the gen- 
eral staff, that bell whose sound is the signal 
for the telegraph wires to speed to the head-quarters of the respective army 
corps the signal for the mobilization of the reserves of the German army. 

The first great battle took place. near the city of Metz, the French army 
being totally defeated. The great battles of Mars-la-Tour, Gravelotte, Bei- 
zeilles, and Sedan rapidly followed, with the same result. Outside of Sedan 
the French fought with desperation, and the Germans pressed on with over- 
whelming numbers and characterisdc German persistence. In this batUe the 
Germans had 285,000 engaged, while MacMahon's army numbered i 15,000 — 
less than half that number. The French, outnumbered two to one, were 
forced into Sedan, and the Germans commenced shelling the town. The 
Prussian king ordered the firing to stop, and sent an officer with a flag of 
truce, offering capitulation. He entered the city and was conducted into the 
presence of the Emperor Napoleon. The French emperor asked what his 
orders were, when he replied that he had been sent to summon the army and 
fortress to surrender. 
23. 




VON MOLTKE. 



354 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

He was referred to General Wimpffen, who had assumed die command in 
place of MacMahon, who had been disabled in battle. With much reluctance 
General Wimpffen consented to an unconditional surrender, and 83,000 
Frenchmen laid down their arms. No such shame had ever before fallen 
upon the arms ot France. 

And now the way to Paris was cleared of every obstacle, and the Germans 
without loss of time began their march on the capital. So soon as the dis- 
aster of Sedan was known there, the Parisians deposed their emperor and 
erected a republic. The new government determined upon a strenuous de- 
fence. The Germans completely surrounded the city, and effectively cut off 
communication with the world outside. They did not inflict the horrors of 
bombardment, and were contented to wait till famine compelled' surrender. 

Fiction would not have dared to be so strange as the stern truth embodied 
in that environment of Teuton soldiery that surrounded the queen city of the 
old world from September, 1870, to February, 1871. While inside Trochu 
planned, ever unavailingly, outside, in Versailles, Bismarck grimly waited for 
the " physiological moment," and the palace of the grand inonarque, with its 
proud inscription ''A toiites les gloires de la France" was in use as an hospital 
for the wounded German soldiers. But on the 18th of January, 1871, the 
grandest hall of that palace, the sumptuous Gallery of Mirrors, was cleared of 
the truckle-beds of the wounded soldiery, that it might be the scene for the 
proclamation of a new emperor. The great mirrors that once reflected the 
splendor of the court of Louis reflect to-day the varied uniforms of the Ger- 
man armies. Not Prussian uniforms alone do the mirrors reflect, but Bava- 
rian, Wurtemberger, Saxon ,also, for to-day witnesses the consummation of 
German unity, and the creation, or rather the resurrection, of a German 
Empire. The raised dais at the upper end of the long hall is thronged with 
the princes and potentates of Germany, gathered there to proclaim as "the 
German emperor " the square-shouldered, white-haired monarch who stands 
in the centre of the forefront of the throng. Behind and on either side of 
him are the men who have made that empire — Bismarck, the planner ; Moltke, 
the strategist ; Roon, the army reformer. By his side, flushed with pride in 
his father, stands the gallant Crown Prince, scholar, general, patriot. Sud- 
denly there stands forth the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, with a clash of his 
sword as its scabbard-point rings on the polished floor. He waves his plumed 
helmet aloft, and shouts, " Hurrah for the German Emperor!" The deep- 
noted " Hoch ! " is caught up vociferously by the throng; it is repeated over 
and over again, till the echo of the cheering booms out over the Place d'Armes 
below. The wounded soldiers in the adjacent galleries hear it as they lie, 
and they give it back in feebler, but not less earnest, tones. The crown 
prince is on his knees before the emperor, his father, kissing the hand of 
father and kaiser. The cannon bellow out the salute, the noise of which 



356 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

mingles with the firing of the fighting hne out to the front, by Montretoiit and 
Ville d'Avray. There is a flusli of triumph on Bismarck's dark face, for the 
unity of Germany has been formally consummated. 

The emperor has always been a true German in his fondness for the good 
things of the table. He once had a severe conflict between his appetite and 
his patriotism, in which, it must be confessed, his appetite won. Before the 
war with France he had a chief cook who suited him exactly. But the cook 




CROWN PRINCE OF GERMANY. 

was a Frenchman, and when the war broke out he was dismissed because of 
his obnoxious nationality. But the German who replaced him only succeeded 
in orivine the monarch a series of fits of violent indigestion. So the former 
cook, Frenchman as he was, was recalled to his post, where he has remained 
ever since. 




STREET IN VIENNA. 



AUSTRIA. 




'HE Empire of Austria is bounded on the north b)^ Russia, Prus- 
sia, Poland and Saxony ; on the west by Bavaria, Switzerland 
and the Kingdom of Italy ; on the south by Italy, the Adriatic 
sea and Turkey, and on the east by Turkey and Russia. Its 
greatest length is 860 miles, and its average breadth 400 miles, 
the total area being nearly twice the size of Great Britain and 
Ireland, and one-third more than the whole of the Middle and 
Eastern States of our own country. 
The countries brought together under the rule of Austria comprise a 
greater portion of the European continent than belongs to any other single 
power excepting Russia. They include provinces inhabited by people of dif- 
ferent race and language, and whose only bond is that of political rule. The 
nucleus of Austrian power is German, and the German provinces of the em- 
pire comprehend the portion of its population that is most advanced with re- 
gard to civil and social condition. But the German provinces constitute less 
than a third part of the entire extent of the empire; the Hungarian countries 

form more than a half of its entire area, and include two-fifths of its popula- 

(357) 



358 THI'; CiOLDKN TREASURY. 

tion. Galicia, or Austrian Poland, is c^cjual to onc-ciglith of the vvliole empire 
as regards size, and includes more than that proportion of its population. 
Previous to iS66 the Italian subjects 6f Austria amoimted to one-eighth of the 
population. 

In 1804 I'rancis assumed the title of hereditary Mmperor of Austria, and 
on the 6th of August, 1806, renounced the title of Emperor of Germany. 
I'he latter event had been preceded by the formation of the Confederation of 
the Rhine, and the entire dissolution of the old (iermanic Confederation. His 
son, I'"erdinand I., succeeded him in March, 1835, 'i"*^' 'le was succeeded by 
the present emperor, Francis Joseph, born August 18th, 1830, who ascended 
the throne December 2d, 1848. 

As every province in Austria forms a separate land, each has its peculiar 
language or dialect, and its distinguishing customs and habits. Of the Sla- 
vonic languages the Polish possesses the richest literature; but the Bohemian 
has of late years been highly cultivated, and forms the written language of 
the Moravians and Slowaks of the north-west counties of Hungary. The 
dialect of Carniola has been methodized, and is grammatically taught as the 
written language of Illyria and Croatia. The ephemeral existence of the II- 
lyrian kingdom, established by Napoleon, sufficed to call forth the powers of 
a lyric poet of considerable merit named Wodnik, who wrote in this dialect. 

Vienna, the capital, is a city of ancient origin, and has been the scene of 
many interesting historical events. It was successively taken by the Goths 
and Huns, and subsequently by Charlemagne, who placed it under the gov- 
ernment of the margraves of the eastern part of his dominions, thence called 
Oesterreich, and Austria. The margraves, afterward dukes, held Vienna un- 
til the middle ol the thirteenth cc-ntury, when it was taken by the Emperor 
PVederick II., and again by Rodolph I., founder of the Ilapsburg dynasty, in 
1297. The Hungarians vainly besieged it in 1477, but eight years later it 
was obliged to surrender to Matthias, who then possessed the united crowns 
of Hungary and Bohemia ami made it the seat of his court. Since the time 
of Maximilian I., it has been the usual residence of the archdukes of Austria 
and emperors of Germany. The most memorable event in its history, how- 
ever, and one that largely influenced the fortunes of Christendom, was its fa- 
mous siege in 1683 by a Turkish army, 200,000 strong, under the command of 
Kara Mustapha, when it was only saved from surrender by the timely arrival 
of John Sobieski, the heroic King of Poland, who defeated the besiegers with 
great slaughter under the very walls of the city. In 1619 Vienna was unsuc- 
cessfully blockaded by the Bohemian Protestants. In 1 S05 it submitted to the 
conquering arms of the first Napoleon, antl again, after a short resistance, in 
1809. 

Throughout Germany the name of Vienna has long been synonymous for 
music. It is the chief national art in Austria, which never had great warriors, 



Ill 1,1 ,ll 




NAL i M.I.I );: A[J1) ijUliEN LOUISE. 



i;.so!)i 



360 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



statesmen or orators, but has always had great and good musicians. The 
musical history of Vienna comprises four grand epochs: that of Haydn and 
Mozart, that of Beethoven and Schubert, that of Liszt and Thalberg, and the 

present, which is dubbed 
the " Renaissance." The 
citizens are always en- 
thusiastic over music — 
their weak, or rather 
point. Misun- 



strong, 

derstood geniuses are un- 
derstood by them, and 
their city is the only one, 
except Munich and Bay- 
reuth, where Wagner's 
music has been performed 
in all its fulness. Com- 
posers and musicians re- 
ceive at their hands that 
formal consecration which 
Rome formerly gave to 
painters and sculptors. 

The environs of Vi- 
enna are worthy of notice, 
and much frequented by 
pleasure- parties from the 
metropolis. The princi- 
pal place is .Schonbrunn, 
the favorite summer res- 
idence of the emperor. 
This palace was begun by Matthias, and finished by Maria Theresa. It pos- 
sesses a melancholy historical interest on account of Napoleon II., Duke of 
Reichstadt, iiaving died here, and in the same bed that his imperial father oc- 
cupied in 1809. This occurred in 1832. His mother was the Archduchess 
Maria Louisa, who was married to Napoleon I., March iith, 1810. 

BAVARIA. 

Bavaria consists of two distinct divisions of territory, which cover an area 
of 29,628 square miles, and contains a population of 5,000,000. The larger 
division is bounded on the south and east by the German provinces of Aus- 
tria ; on the west by the Kingdom of Wurtemberg and the Duchy of Baden ; 
and on the north by the smaller German states. The smaller portion is to 
the westward of the Rhine, and bordering on the French frontier. It has a 




BEETHOVEN. 



AUSTRIA. 361 

mean elevation of i,6oo feet above the level of the sea, is 200 miles long, and 
I 50 wide. The greater portion of Bavaria is within the basin of the Danube, 
which crosses the country from west to east, and is watered by that river and 
its numerous affluents. The climate is in general temperate and salubrious. 

Bavaria is particularly noted for the good quality of its beer, which is far 
superior to that of any other country; in fact, its flavor is entirely different; 
but you must dnnk it in Bavai'ia. The quantity drunk and brewed is incredi- 
ble. Allowing 25,000,000 gallons to be exported every year, the quantity 
brewed would leave seventeen gallons per annum to every man, woman and 
child in the kingdom. 

BOHEMIA. 

" ' Hold your tongues ! both Swabian and Saxon ! ' 
A bold Bohemian cries ; 
'If there's a heaven upon this earth, 

In ]5oheniia it lies.' "—Longfcllcnv s " Tlic Happiest Land." 

The ancient Kingdom of Bohemia, of which Prague is the capital, has been 
a dependency of Austria since the Thirty Years' war. The princess Eliza- 
beth, daughter of James I. of England, was for a short time Queen of Bohemia, 
her husband, the Elector Palatine, having been invited to fill the throne and 
support the Bohemian Protestants. But Ferdinand II. of Austria drove him 
out, and this religious war involved the whole of Germany in flames, each 
principality taking one side or the other, and retaliating on their adversaries 
by the destruction of churches, schools, libraries, and institutions of all sorts. 

The capital city of Bohemia is Prague, which retains many traces of former 
grandeur. It is situated on a noble river, the Moldau ; and the Hradshin, 
or royal palace, crowns a height overlooking the town. There are many Jews 
in Prague, and they possess a quaint, picturesque cemetery, which strangers 
are taken to see. The Bohemians are not of German race ; they are Sclavs, 
a people of oriental derivation, and of finer and less ponderous qualities ; 
they have something of the Tartar in their physiognomy. 

In the cathedral of St. Vitus in Prague are kept some very curious relics, 
among which are some of the bones of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a piece of 
the true cross, two thorns from the dying Saviour's crown, one of the palm- 
branches over which he rode, the pocket-handkerchief of the Virgin Mary, 
the bridal robe of Maria Theresa, worked by herself into a mass-robe, with 
numerous relics used at the coronation of the kings. 

Not far from the city stands, at a great height, the Acropolis. These prec- 
ipices are famous in history. It is said that Queen Libussa, the founder of 
Prague, who was a notorious wanton, used to pitch her lovers from this giddy 
height into the river as soon as she got tired of them and wished a new one. 
A country clown, who was more successful than the rest in retaining her pas- 
sion, was the ancestor of the long line of Bohemian kings. 



362 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Near the palace is situated the Loretto chapel, which is an exact copy of 
the wandering house of Loretto in Italy (neither of which is anything like the 
house at Nazareth). This is considered the holiest place in Prague, and pil- 
grimages are made to it from all parts of Germany. Here you will be shown 
the leg-bone of Mary Magdalen and the skull of one of the wise virgins ! 



TYROL. 

The Tyrol is the westernmost province of Austria. Its length and breadth 
are about alike (145 miles), with a population of about 950,000, of which a 
third are of Italian origin. The main chain of the Alps, including many of its 
higher summits, traverses it from east to west. In some respects its scenery 
is as grand as any in the world. The Dolomite mountains, with their fantasti- 
cal shapes and sharp peaks, extending along, one after the other, in serrated 

ridges, like alligators' 




jaws, cleft and fissured 
thousands of feet deep, 
form a picture which 
stands in living con- 
trast with anything 
known in Europe. The 
Stelvio Pass, the high- 
est carriage-road in the 
world (9,200 feet above 
the level of the sea — 
nearly 1,000 feet above 
the level of perpetual 
snow), is for grandeur 
of scenery, boldness of 
design, mao-nitude of 
labor, etc., not to be 
surpassed in Europe. 
Some of the glaciers, 
within the limits of 
the Tyrol, are unsur- 
passed in grandeur. 

The aptitudes of the 
Tyrolese are many. At 
six years old the little 
Tyrolese boys go off 
into Bavaria, to the great fair of Kempten, and hire themselves out to mind 
cattle and flocks of geese. In older years they migrate hither and thither in 
all sorts of capacities — masons, carpenters, miners and picture-dealers. More 



GLACIER. 



AUSTRIA. 363 

than 30,000 men thus go out every year. The chamois-hunters of the 
Tyrol are renowned for their agihty, and will go through any fatigue and 
danger for the valuable chamois' horn. The search after medicinal plants is 
also actively carried on. The flora of the country ie rich and varied, and the 
inhabitants are very skilful in detecting useful herbs. 

The Tyrolese, again, are apt with their hands in mechanical arts. They 
not only sculpture ornamental articles in wood, but undertake larger works, 
such as portable wooden shops and houses, of which the pieces are numbered, 
so as to be put together properly. These are carried as far as the shores of 
Lake Constance, and there embarked for different localities. 

The Tyrolese have a great love of liberty, and when the French, under the 
first empire, took possession of the country in 1808, an insurrection broke out 
under the famous Andrew Hofer, an innkeeper and corn-merchant. After 
considerable success, and the destruction of several detachments of French 
troops, Hofer was obliged to capitulate and lay down his arms. But the fol- 
lowing year (18 10) he was arrested on accusation of holding secret intrigues 
with the Austrians, taken to Mantua, and shot. 

In every village is a school which children are obliged to attend ; and the 
University of Innspruck, the capital of Tyrol, is one of the best in the empire. 

We conclude with the translation of a few lines from that charming poet- 
ess, Cordula Peregrina : 

" Where find another land like thee — Tyrol ? 
Where heavenward rears so proud the rock's steep crest? 
Where hushed iii dreams do greener valleys rest? 
Where sunlit streams in wilder torrents foam ? 
So ask lone wanderers as o'er thee they roam — 
And echo answers to the listening soul : 
God hath blest thee — blessed land, Tyrol ! 
God bless thy meadows green, 
God bless thy lakes so blue, 
God bless thy rugged peaks, 
God bless thy hearts so true ! " 




NOVGOROD. 



RUSSIA. 




HE early history of that great empire whose boundaries have been 
gradually extended until it now occupies almost the entire northern 
portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, embracing in its immense area 
more than half of Europe and one-third of Asia, is involved in great 
obscurity. Its earliest annals only furnish occasional glimpses of numerous 
barbarian hordes roaming over its surface. The Greeks established several 
colonies in this region, and entered into commercial relations with the various 
tribes. 

In the second century the Goths overran the country, and established 
themselves from the Don to the Danube. Successive migrations of Alans, 
Huns, Avarians and Bulgarians followed, and in the fifth century the Slavi, or 
Slavs, as they are now termed, came from the northern Danube and, spread- 
ing themselves along the Dnieper, drove the scattered Finnish tribes dwelling 
in this territory higher north, toward Finland and the region of the Arctic sea. 
The Slavs soon acquired, from commercial intercourse with their southern 
neighbors, habits of civilized life, and embraced the Christian religion. They 
founded the cities of Novgorod and Kiev, which early attained considerable 
importance. Their wealth, however, soon excited the avidity of the fierce 

(364) 



RUSSIA. 365 

nomadic tribes by whom they were surrounded, and with whom they were 
compelled to maintain a perpetual warfare. 

The Slavs, seeing that the warlike races threatened their rising state with 
destruction, were compelled by the necessity of self-preservation to make 
terms with them. 

Their neeotiations resulted, in 862 a. d., in the arrival of a celebrated 
Varagian chief, named Rurik, with a body of his countrymen, in the vicinity 
of the lake Ladoga, who laid the foundation of the present Empire of Rus- 
sia by uniting his people under one government with those who already oc- 
cupied the soil. Rurik seems to have been a bold and sagacious ruler, and is 
credited with zeal for the strict administration of justice, and enforcing its ex- 
ercise on all the boyars or nobles who possessed territories under him. The 
Christian worship, according to the forms of the Greek Church, was first made 
known in Russia under Olga, the daughter-in-law of Ruric; and it was for- 
mally adopted as the state religion by her grandson, Vladimir I., who was bap- 
tized in 980. For 736 years (862-1598) Ruric's descendants, of whom the 
last was Feodor, filled the Russian throne. 

Feodor I. was a feeble and vacillating prince. He died in 1598, and with 
him ended the dynasty of Rurik, which, during eight centuries, had wielded 
the Russian sceptre. 

A hideous period of internal strife followed, with many rival claimants for 
the throne. To the horrors of internal warfare was added the shock of in- 
vasion by the Poles, who burnt Moscow in 161 1 and slaughtered tens of thou- 
sands of the inhabitants. 

The turmoil was finally ended in 161 3 by the elevation to the throne of 
Michael Feodorovitch Romanoff, the first czar of the present imperial family. 
He was a son of Feodor, Archbishop of Rostov, whose grandfather had been 
connected by marriage with the House of Rurik. 

In 1689 a new era opened for Russia on the accession of Peter, known in 
history as the Great. In a brief time he transformed the entire nation ; Rus- 
sia became the most powerful empire of Northern Europe, and henceforth re- 
garded herself and was generally regarded, as a leading member of the Euro- 
pean family of states. 

The ruling passion of Peter the Great was a desire to extend his empire 
and consolidate his power; and consequently his first act was to make war 
on the Turks, an undertaking which was at the outset imprudently conducted, 
and consequently unsuccessful. He lost 30,000 men before Azov, and did not 
obtain permanent possession of the town until the year 1699, and then by an 
armistice. In the following year he was defeated in his intrenched camp at 
Narva, containing 80,000 men, by 8,000 Swedes, under Charles XII., then only 
a boy of seventeen ; and on many other occasions the Russians suffered se- 
vere checks and reverses. 



366 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



But at length the indomitable perseverance of Peter prevailed. In 1705 
he carried Narva, the scene of his former defeat, by assault; and two years 
after, by the crowning victory of Poltava, where he showed the qualities of an 

able general, he sealed the fate 
of his gallant and eccentric ad- 
versary and the brave nation 
over which he ruled. 

The emperors of Russia are 
called Czars. When the Czar 
Peter was twenty-five years old 
he left his throne and travelled 
over Europe in search of knowl- 
edge. He did not go to any of 
the learned universities, nor ap- 
ply himself to the study of the 
dead languages. That was not 
the sort of knowledge which 
Peter wanted. The first thing he 
did was to go to Holland, and 
put himself apprentice to a ship- 
carpenter. The house is still 
standing where he used to live 
while there. He afterward went 
to England and followed the 
same trade as in Holland. Be- 
sides learning the business of 
ship-carpentry, he took lessons in otner branches of mechanics, and also in 
surgery. In short, he neglected no kind of knowledge which he thought 
would be useful to himself or his subjects. In a little more than a year he 
heard that his sister was endeavoring to make herself empress of Russia. 
This intelligence compelled him to break off his studies and labors, and hasten 
back to the city of Moscow. On arriving there he put some of the conspir- 
ators to death, and confined his sister in prison. His time was afterward so 
much occupied in war, and in taking care of the empire, that he never had 
leisure to finish his education. But he had already learnt a great deal, and 
the effect of his knowledge was soon seen in the improvement of the condi- 
tion of Russia. 

Peter used to rise at five in the morning, and busy himself all day about 
the affairs of the empire. But in the evening, when his work was over, he 
would seat himself beside a big, round bottle of brandy, and drink till his 
reason was quite gone. This habit, together with the natural violence of his 
temper, rendered him almost as dangerous to his friends as to his enemies. 




PETER THE GREAT. 



RUSSIA. 367 

He often said that he had corrected the faults of Russia, but that he could not 
correct his own. 

Peter was in the habit of beating those who offended hiin with his cane. 
The highest nobleman in Russia often underwent this punishment. Even the 
Empress Catherine, his wife, sometimes got soundly beaten. It is supposed 
that the Czar Peter ordered his own son to be put to death, and that he was 
himself privately executed in prison. 

Peter died in 1725, at the age of fifty-three, and was succeeded by his 
wife, the Empress Catherine. She had been a country girl, and the Czar Peter 
had married her for the sake of her beauty. In some respects Catherine was 
a good sort of woman ; but, among other faults, she was rather too fond of 
wine. 

She reigned only about two years, and was succeeded by her husband's 
grandson, named Peter the Second. He died in 1730, and left the throne to 
Anne, Duchess of Courland, his niece. This empress was a good sovereign, 
and performed many praiseworthy acts. None of her deeds, however, have 
been more famous than the building of a palace of ice. This stately and beau- 
tiful structure was built on a frozen lake. Instead of wood or hewn stone, it 
was composed entirely of blocks of ice. The furniture was likewise of ice; 
and even the beds were of the same material. When it was illuminated within, 
the whole edifice glittered and sparkled as if it were made of diamonds. 

The successor of Anne was the Princess Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the 
Great. She mounted the throne in i 740, and reigned twenty-two years. Her 
succesor was Peter the Third, who began to reign in 1762. He, like Peter 
the Great, had a wife named Catherine. They had not long sat together on 
the throne when she contrived to depose Peter, and make herself sole ruler 
of Russia. It is supposed that she afterward caused him to be murdered. 

In the early part of her reign she interfered in the affairs of Poland, which 
produced a civil war and terminated eventually in the conquest and partition 
of that unfortunate country. In 1769 the Turks declared war against Russia, 
which was at first favorable to their arms, but they were afterward defeated 
with great slaughter on the Dneister, and compelled to abandon Choczim. 
At this period was fought the celebrated action before Tchesme, in which the 
Turkish fleet was completely destroyed — an achievement mainly owing to the 
gallant conduct of Admirals Elphinstone and Greig, Englishmen in the Rus- 
sian service. 

In 1 791 the intrigues of Russia, Austria and Prussia, for the partition of 
Poland, commenced, and, carried on for several years, were brought to a con- 
clusion by two sieges of Warsaw. In the first, Kosciusko was made prisoner; 
and in the second the Poles, unassisted by his genius, gave way in a fearful 
assault, which in 1 794 consummated the ruin of Poland as a nation. Cath- 
erine's further plans of conquest and aggrandizement were cut short by her 



368 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



death in i 796, after a reign of thirty-five years. She was succeeded by her 
son Paul, who was then forty-three years old. 

The Czar Paul possessed none of his mother's talents, and was of a very 
stern and unamiable disposition. People suspected him of being insane. His 
conduct grew so intolerable that some of his principal nobles conspired to 
kill him. 




CATHERINE THE GREAT OF RUSSIA. 

Paul was succeeded by Alexander I., his eldest son. This emperor reigned 
from 1 801 till 1825. During his reign Russia was invaded by the Emperor 
Napoleon Bonaparte, at the head of nearly half a million of men. 

The policy of the Russians was to retire before the irresistible force of Na- 
poleon, laying waste the country as they went. At an early period in the 
campaign it became evident that Napoleon had brought into those thinly- 




(369) 



370 ■ THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

peopled wilds a host of men so great that it was beyond his power to feed them. 
It was impossible to carry supplies for such multitudes, and the wasted coun- 
try through which their march led yielded nothing adequate to their enormous 
wants. Almost from the beginning the soldiers were put on half- rations. 
Water was scanty and bad ; the heat of the weather was intense. Large num- 
bers of tlie hungry soldiers strayed on marauding expeditions, and were lost. 
The mortality soon became excessive, and the army left ghastly traces of its 
presence in the carcasses of horses and the unburied bodies of men scattered 
thickly along the line of march. Before they reached Moscow, one-half of 
the men had sunk under the hardships of the journey. 

Although the French army had penetrated to Moscow, it was found that 
they could not remain there. The Russians set the city on fire. Winter was 
comino- on, and the French soldiers had nowhere to shelter themselves. 
They retreated toward Poland. On their way thither, they fought many bat- 
tles with the Russians, and the weather was so bitter cold that the bodies of 
the slain were frozen sdff The snow was crimsoned with their blood. Before 
they reached the frontiers of Poland, three-fourths of the army were destroyed. 
The Emperor Napoleon fled homeward in a sledge, and returned to Paris. 

Nicholas succeeded Alexander I. in 1825 ; he was a man of great abilides 
and, though of a despodc temper, greatly contributed to the advancement of 
Russia in civilization. In 1854 he became involved in a war with Turkey, 
France and England. The latter besieged the Russian town and fortress of 
Sebastopol in the Crimea, and here about half a million of men became en- 
gaged in the mighty contest. This was called the Eastern war. 

For many dreary months, while the allied army was being destroyed by 
official incapacity, the siege went on. The allies never for a moment loosened 
their hold on the besieged city. Often their fire was intermitted because of 
the difficulty of conveying from Balaklava the huge masses of iron which it 
was their business to throw into Sebastopol. Occasionally it was discontinued 
for a time that preparations might be made for greater efforts. Very soon it 
could be seen that Sebastopol was a mass of ruins. But that had no tendency 
to weaken the defence. The Russians fortified a position outside the town by 
means of earthworks and rifle-pits. 

One very strong earthwork, the Malakoff, faced the French position ; an- 
other, the Redan, was in front of the English. It was determined to carry 
these works by assault. The French, whose trenches were now within fifteen 
yards of the enemy, were able, after a brief but violent struggle, to take secure 
possession of the Malakoff. 

The English had a considerable space to traverse under a murderous fire. 
But they forced their way into the Redan, and looked eagerly for reinforce- 
ments which would enable them to hold their conquest. Incapable generalship 
left them without support, and they were driven out with terrible loss. 



RUSSIA. 



371 



Next day the attack was to have been renewed. But the Russian position 
had become untenable. Their whole army was conveyed across the bay, and 
the southern side of the city was abandoned. The war was virtually ended. 
The Emperor Nicholas had died — broken-hearted by the disasters of this 

and his son, the more enlightened Alexander, was now 
He had maintained the contest in this remote corner of 
his dominions at enormous cost in men and treasure, and he could maintain 
it no longer. His ships had been sunk to save them from the enemy. Sebas- 
topol — in ruins — was wrenched away from him ; his impregnable forts, his splen- 
did docks, were at leisure mined and blown into the air by triumphant foes. 
His power in the Black sea was for the time utterly overthrown. The allies 



calamitous struggle 
willing to negotiate 




THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL. 

had two hundred thousand men in the Crimea — a force which he was now 
powerless to resist. Peace had become a necessity for Russia. 

Under the rule of his successor, the despotic system of Nicholas was to 
an important extent departed from. The newspaper press experienced sud- 
den enlargement. So urgent was the demand for political discussion, that 
within a year or two from the close of the war seventy new journals were 
founded in St. Petersburg and Moscow alone. 

The enfranchised press began to call loudly for the education of the peo- 
ple, for their participation in political power, for many other needful reforms. 
Chief among these, not merely in its urgency, but also in its popularity, was 
the emancipation of the serfs. 



372 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Forty-eight million Russian peasants were in bondage — subject to the ar- 
bitrary will of an owner — bought and sold with the properties on which they 
labored. This unhappy system was of no great antiquity, for it was not till 
the close of the sixteenth century that the Russian peasant became a serf. 
The evil institution had be^un to die out in the west before it was legalized in 
Russia. Its abolition had lone been looked forward to. Catherine II. had 
contemplated this great reform, and so also had her grandson, Ale.xander I. ; 
but the wars in which they spent their days forbade progress in any useful di- 
rection. Nicholas very early in his reign appointed a secret committee to 
consider the question ; but the Polish insurrection of 1830 marred his design. 
Another fruitless effort was made in 1836. In 1838 a third committee was 

appointed, but its work 
was suspended by " a 
bad harvest," and never 
resumed. Finally, it was 
asserted that the dying 
emperor bequeathed to 
his son the task which 
he himself had not been 
permitted to accomplish. 
And thus it came to 
pass that when Alexan- 
der ascended the throne 
the general expectation 
of his people pointed to 
the emancipation of the 
serfs. The emperor 
shared in the national 
desire. At his corona- 
tion he had prepared 
the somewhat reluctant 
nobles for the change 
which, although it had 
been long foreshadowed, was to too many of them verj' unwelcome. 

The 17th of March, 1861, will ever be a memorable day in Russian civili- 
zation ; for 20,000,000 of human beings, who were slaves the day before, then 
became free men. The law of emancipation bestowed personal freedom on 
the serfs. For two years those who were household servants must abide in 
their service ; receiving, however, wages for their work. Those who had pur- 
chased exemption from the obligation to labor for their lord were to continue 
for two years the annual payment. At the end of that time all serfs entered 
on possession of unqualified freedom. 




ALEXANDER II. 



RUSSIA. 



373 



Alexander II. was assassinated In iS8i by the agents of a set of people 
calling themselves Nihilists, or Destructives. The murder of the czar brought 
down upon them the execrations of the whole world. Immediately after his 
death, his son was pro- 
claimed emperor under 
the title of Alexander III. 

The czars have for 
some time been by blood 
more than half German. 
Their mothers have been 
German, their wives have 
been German. Alexan- 
der II. was more German 
than Russian. He was 
trained by his German 
mother, and under the 
influence of her German 
kindred ; after marriage 
he was ruled by his Ger- 
man wife. 

When Alexander II. 
came to the throne, Rus- 
sia was undergoing the 
stress of the Crimean 
war, which was already 
going against her, and all 
parties had to unite for 
a time. It was Russia 
against all the great pow- 
ers of Europe, save Prus- 
sia, who at least kept 
Austria in check and had 
Drevented her from ar reading the emancipation proclamation. 

tively joining the unnatural coalition between England and France. Alexan- 
der II. naturally flung himself into the arms of his kinsmen, the Hohenzol- 
lerns, and became more a German and less a Russian than ever. 

Alexander III. came to the throne pledged in a manner to the anti-German 
party and its foreign policy. He was born March i 2th, 1 845. He married the 
Princess Maria Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark, in November, 
1866. The Nihilists, at whose hands his father came to an untimely end, have 
- made the throne of Alexander fraught with danger, and he is haunted by a 
constant fear of assassination. Who his friends are he knows not, and his 




374 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



servants he is afraid to trust. The Nihilists work in secret and in the dark. 
They are, however, thoroughly organized, and have the means of penetrating 
into the inmost recesses of the imperial palace, and they have shown that they 
have both the power and the means of disseminating their views by the print- 
ing-press. In some of these secret printing-offices desperate conflicts have 
occurred between government officials and Nihilists, whose work was the 
printing of sheets distributed by their organization. All this has given the 
monarch to feel that, let him be ever so much a favorite with his people, he is 
at every moment in peril of his life. If there be anywhere even a small body 
of discontented spirits, the more especially if they are banded together by the 
ties of some political theory, and bent upon assassination as a means to carry 




DESTROYING A NIHILIST PRINTING-OFFICE. 

it out, they will, most likely, sooner or later, gain their end. Nine attempts 
may fail, but the tenth will succeed. Nothing works such a change in a weak 
man as this constant dread of an unseen murderer. It not infrequently shat- 
ters the strongest nerves. 

The conquests of Russia in Central Asia have within a few years attracted 
general attention ; yet the Russian advance into these regions began centuries 
ago, when the czars of Moscow, who succeeded Ivan IV., being freed from 
the Tartar invasion, began to retaliate upon the Mongols, and also endeavored 
to find markets for their manufactures, which were so inferior in quality as to 
be unsalable in Europe. Between the Ural river, which is the natural east- 
ern boundary of European Russia, and the Irtish, formerly on the south-west 




CROSSING THE STEPPES. 



(37.5) 



376 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

frontier of Siberia, extended boundless, arid plains, called steppes, inhabited 
only by a few thousand wandering Kirghis. These tribes maintained an 
almost constant warfare upon the Russian frontier settlements, and compelled 
the Russians to pursue them far into the interior of their vast territory. In 
this manner the Russian domain was constantly advancing eastward, but al- 
though some of the tribes submitted to the Russian rule, for two centuries no 
one could say who was really master of the vast tracts of land between the rich 
Khanates of Central Asia and the banks of the Ural and Irtish. A considera- 
ble trade e.xisted between these khanates and the towns of Astrakhan and 
Orenburg, but it was carried on rather by Bokhara merchants, who crossed 
the steppes, than by Russian traders ; for the latter could not venture abroad 
without great risk of being robbed and killed in the steppes, or plundered and 
sold into bondage in the khanates themselves : while the former manaeed to 
traverse the wilderness in safety, and to make good bargains with the Mus- 
covites. 

The Emperor Nicholas attempted to compel the khanates to a fairer sys- 
tem of trading, but with litde success. An expedition sent out in 1839, under 
Count Petrovsky, perished in the wilderness for want of food and water, their 
sufferings being aggravated by constant fights with the hostile nomadic tribes 
and the regular forces of the khans. 

Finally, by a succession of Russian victories, the Khan of Khiva was forced 
to make cessions which brought the entire east coast of the Caspian into 
the hands of Russia, enabling her to communicate with and supply all her mili- 
tary lines of operation by rail, river and the sea, from St. Petersburg and the 
Baltic. 

Russia estimates the military importance of the Caspian sea so highly, 
that, while reserving to herself the unrestricted use of its waters, she has 
forced Persia to accede to a treaty which prevents that power from main- 
taining any vessels of war upon it, although the south and south-west shores 
are part of its territory. 

We have now traced the gradual rise of Russian power, from the period 
when the rude Varagian chieftain first established his sovereignty, a thousand 
years ago. The comparatively small territory which then yielded to his sway is 
now part of the most majestic empire the world has ever seen. Extending 
from latitude 38 deg. 20 min. to about ■]•] deg. 30 min. north, and from longi- 
tude 17 deg. 38 min. east to about 170 deg. west, its greatest length from 
west to east is about 6.000 miles, and its greatest breadth (exclusive of isl- 
ands) about 2,300 miles. Its total surface is estimated to comprise one-twen- 
ty-sixth of the entire surface of the globe, and to represent one-sixth of its 
firm land. Its total area, in square miles, is 8,360,000, and its population more 
than 85,000,000 of people ! 

St. Petersburg, the modern capital of Russia, contains 700,000 inhabitants. 



RUSSIA. 



377 



It was founded by Peter the Great in the year i 703 amid the marshes througn 
which the river Neva discharges its waters into the sea. In the number and 
vast size of its public edifices the Russian capital may compare with any other 
city in Europe, and even surpasses most of them. 

The longest street, and most fashionable, as well as the most animated 
thoroughfare of the city, is the Newsky Prospect. In St. Petersburg are some 
of the finest cathedrals in the world, amongst which may be mentioned St. 
Isaac's cathedral, the foundation-pile alone of which cost over a million of 
dollars; Smolnoi church, which has twenty-four colossal stoves for heating the 
building, and representing small chapels; the cathedral of St. Petersburg, 




NEWSKY PROSPECT. 



built in the shape of a cross, 238 feet in length and 182 feet in width; the 
cathedral and fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, which contains the remains 
of all the deceased emperors and empresses of Russia, from Peter the Great, 
with the single exception of Peter II., who, dying at Moscow, was also buried 
there. 

Moscow, the ancient metropolis of the Russian Empire, is situated on the 
banks of the Moskwa river. It was founded in 1 147, and is one of the most 
irregular cities in the world. Its irregularity of design is not so conspicuous 
as formerly, prior to the conflagration of 181 2, when its flames exerted so 
fatal an influence over the destinies of the first Napoleon. But Moscow is 
now more splendid than before; half Asiatic and half European. 



378 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



In the heart of the city stands the celebrated KremHn, or citadel, which is 
itself two miles in circuit. It has been completely repaired since the injuries 
it received in 1812, and is crowded with buildings of almost every imaginable 
kind. 

In the little palace of Moscow, within the Kremlin, on a pedestal of granite, 
stands the monarch of all bells. Its height is over twenty-one feet, its circum- 
ference sixty-seven feet, and its weight is 400,000 pounds. 

The cathedral of the Assumption is also within the Kremlin, and here all 
the emperors are crowned, and a grander sight than this ceremony cannot well 
be imagined. Amongst the relics and objects of interest which it contains, 
there is an immense Bible, presented to the cathedral by the mother of Peter 
the Great. The binding, which is covered with emeralds and other precious 




KREMLIN AT MOSCO^A^. 



stones, cost over ^1,000,000. Here is also a nail from the true cross, a robe 
of the Saviour and a portion of that of the Virgin, a picture of the Virgin by 
St. Paul, and numerous other relics. 

Situated behind the cathedral is the " House of the Holy Synod." It is 
celebrated for being the place where the Mir, or holy oil, is kept and made, 
with which all the children of Russia are baptized. The oil, made every three 
years, amounting to three or four gallons, is sanctified by some drops of the 
same oil that Mary Magdalen used in anointing the feet of the Saviour. In 
christening, the priest uses a small camel's-hair brush, with which, having 
dipped it in the oil, he makes the sign of the cross on the child's eyes, that it 
may see only the way to do good; over its mouth, that it may say no evil ; over 
its ears, that it may not listen to evil counsel ; over its hands, that it may do no 
evil ; and over its feet, that it may only walk in the path of holiness. 

Close to the Kremlin walls on the outside stands the cathedral church 



RUSSIA. 



379 



of St. Basil the Beatified. It differs in appearance from Russian churches in 
general, possessing no fewer than twenty domes and towers, which are not 
only of different shapes and sizes, but are gilded and painted in all possible 
varieties of color. It was erected by the czar John the Terrible in the six- 
teenth century, who, it is said, was so well pleased with the work of the Italian 




CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL. 



architect that, after eulogizing his skill, he ordered his eyes to be put out that 
he might never erect another. 

Novgorod, the cradle of the Russian Empire, is situated on the Volkhov 
river, and contains a population of 20,000. The churches are the only surviv- 



380 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



\iv^ monuments of the greatness of Novgorod. l''oremost among them stands 
the cathedral of St. Sophia, or, as it was formerly styled, " the heart and soul 
of Great Novgorod," where the princes were crowned. 

Odessa, a port on the Black sea, is noted for its bombardment for twelve 
hours by an Anglo-French squadron on the 22d of April, ICS54. There are 
no less than twenty Jewish synagogues at Odessa, while tiicre are but thirteen 
Russo-Greek churches. More than half the number of inhabitants is made up 
of Jews. 

Odessa presents a very handsome appearance from the sea. The build- 
ings are modern antl imposing. There is a magnificent flight of marble stairs, 
a hundred feet wide, leading from the sea to the summit of the bluff on which 




ODESSA. 



the city stands. The streets are broad and well paved, and on each side, 
flanking the sidewalks, is a double row of shade-trees. 

The religion of Russia is Greek Catholic. The Greek Church separated 
from the Roman Church at the time of the dismemberment of the Roman 
Hmpire, when Rome and Constantinople were each striving to be the head. 
At this ])(Tiod a great controversy about the worship of images began to 
agitate tiu; mind of Hurope. East and West were divided against each other, 
and against themselves. Leo III., Kmperor of the East, believing that the 
victories of Islam were owing more to Christian weakness than to Moslem 
strength, resolved to root out the idolatry which had struck its roots so deeply 
in the church. 

All Christendom was severed into two great bands, image-servers and 



RUSSIA. 



381 



image-breakers. Pope Gregory III. solemnly denounced the sin of image- 
breaking under pain of excom- 
munication. But, in spite of 

threat and curse, the work went 

on, and a gulf, never since 

bridged over, grew between 

the Churches of Rome and 

of Constantinople. The strife 
. lasted for a hundred and twenty 

years, lulled only for a season, 

but not settled, by a decision of 

the second Council of Nicaea in 

787, which sought to cast oil on 

the waves by permitting the 

veneration, but forbidding the 

worship of images, until the 

final triumph of the image party 

in the Council of Constantinople 

in 1842. From this controversy 

we may date the rise of the 

Greek Church, whose present 

stronghold is Russia. 

(The Greek Church does not 

acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, nor claim infallibility. It is gov- 
erned by Patriarchs. Celibacy is 
not compulsory on its clergy. Like 
the Church of Rome, it has also mon- 
asteries, with governors over them, 
who are called Archimandrites, and 
who are the same as abbots in the 
Roman Church. Cloisters, in which 
females reside for life, under a vow 
of chastity and religion, are also 
numerous in Russia./ 

The Russian is the strangest 
mixture of civilization and barbar- 
ism, of great talent, polished man- 
ners, and domestic affability, com- 
bined with qualities and habits 
„,,^ which mark him much below the 

RUSSIAN NUNS BEGGINQ ALMS. 

average European level. The 
reason is partly to be found in history. Peter the Great set himself. 




AHUHIMANUHITE. 




382 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



to work to force his subjects up to the standard of the rest of Europe. 
He found them semi-savages of Asiatic origin ; he left them with many of the 
externals of London and Paris. He found them with Moscow for their 
capital, far in the heart of the country; he left them with St. Petersburg, a 
grand new city on the banks of the Neva, and with immediate connection with 
the Baltic. He changed army, navy, laws, customs ; he actually went and 
studied as a shipwright in Holland, that he might teach his people how to 
build ships, for in those days Holland was the great commercial emporium. 
He went to Paris to learn manners and arts ; he eat and drank enough for a 
giant, but could be a gentleman when he chose ; and he did all this by the 




RUSSIAN FAMILY. 



force of an overwhelming will and the autocratic power of his czarship ; but 
his life and work was in a certain sense artificial. Work as he would, he 
could not civilize those enormous tracts of Russia proper, of Siberia, and of 
the East. 

The people are exceedingly superstitious in regard to ghosts, house-spirits, 
and the evil eye. They have been seen to make violent gestures to the wind, 
to induce it to change and blow the sparks of a burning house away from 
other property which was being endangered. Some twenty-five years ago a 
balloon went up from St. Petersburg, under charge of a French aeronaut in the 
car. It was lost sight of, and the place of its descent could not be ascertained. 
At last it was discovered that it had come down in a country village at some 
distance, and that the peasants had murdered the Frenchman, under the con- 



RUSSIA. 



38? 



viction that he was a supernatural being, especially as they could not under- 
stand a word he said. 

Our account of Russia would be quite incomplete without some mention 
of Siberia, the cold, northern country to which political exiles have been sent 
in such numbers. It comprises nearly all the northern part of Asia. At 
present Russia only looks upon Siberia as a country rich in furs, whence trib- 
ute-money may be exacted ; but snow-covered, thinly-peopled, and poor in 
provisions and means of communication ; and the government officials are de- 
testable. Men who are sent as convicts to Siberia suffer the most wretched 
fate, and are driven along in chained gangs. The dreaded words, " Siberian 




GOLD MlNts, SIBfc-HlA. 



exile," comprise all degrees of human misery, from dreary banishment to 
physical sufferings of the most excruciating kind. 

When Mr. and Mrs. William Atkinson, in whose books upon Siberia and 
Tartary are many interesting details, were known to be about to leave Mos- 
cow on a prolonged tour in these wild regions, the families and friends of these 
unhappy exiles, many of them lost for long years to their native land, crowded 
about the travellers with messages to the objects of their affection ; and it is 
a fact that the Atkmsons constantly went out of their way, that they might 
deliver these messages in lonely villages, in nameless solitudes, and some- 
times even in the very mines. Mr. Atkinson speaks of two Russian noble- 
men, one of whom worked in a mine, the other cultivated a small farm. In 
both instances, the wife had voluntarily accompanied her husband. 



S84 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



Even hospitality, that true Sclavonic virtue, has not become acclimatized 
in this inhospitable region. When a man is going to visit his neighbor, he 
never goes straight to his house, but walks along the road, and stops as if by 
chance at the window and begins a conversation ; then, if the master or mis- 
tress wishes to see him, they invite him in. 

When the samovar is ready, they drink tea out of saucers, now and then 
taking a bite of a piece of sugar. In this way they consume about three 
cups, and then turn the cups upsidedown, placing on the bottom the remains 
of the sugar they have been nibbling at. 

As soon as tea is over the guest rises to go, and then the following dia- 
logue invariably takes place: 

"Why are you in such a hurry? " says the hostess. 

" Time to go home," answers the guest. 

" Stay a little longer." 

" Thank you ; you have given us plenty to eat and drink." 

" There was but little." 

" No ; there was quite enough ; we had plenty." 

This conversation, which always takes place and is almost mechanically 
repeated, being ended, the guest approaches the host, and taking his hands, 
says, " I thank you for the vodka, the tea, the cakes, the sugar," etc. 

It is indispensable, when thanking the host, to enumerate everything the 
guest lias consumed during his visit. At the end of this catalogue the visitor 
humbly begs his host to come and see him, which, after a time, he does, and 
things go on in exacdy the same way. Care must be taken that the viands 
provided are of equal quantity and quality. If at any time a man eats or 
drinks more than his host did when a guest on a former occasion, quarrels, 
upbraidings, or sarcastic remarks are the result. 

" I gave them tea and sugar," the host will be heard to say, " and they 
gave me nothing but tea ; " or again, " I gave them cake, and had nothing but 
bread in return." 




SIBERIAN DOG-SUEDGE. 




CONSTANTINOPLE. 



TURKEY. 




fIDWAY between Asia and Africa, having the Black sea upon the 
north and the Mediterranean sea upon the south, lies Turkey. 
In one sense the centre of the hemisphere which contains it, this 
country, by its geographical position as well as its political im- 
port, is, so to speak, the " hinge " of the eastern continent. 

Comprising in Europe 196,770 square miles, with a population 
of nearly seventeen millions, and in Asia 664,272 square miles, and a 
population about equal to that in Europe, there are to be added to the area 
1,036,350 square miles in Africa, having a population of i 1,000,000 ; making a 
grand total of about two millions of square miles and forty-four millions of 
people. This entire country, including all dependencies, is known as the 
Ottoman Empire. 

And tlie significance borne by its geographical situation has been, almost 
since its first existence as an empire, sustained by its political import in the 
affairs of Europe and Asia. For this reason — and equally whether we con- 
sider it in its palmy days and under monarchs whose achievements have be- 
come matters of high consideration in the history of the world, or at the pres- 

(.3SOJ 



2.5 



386 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

ent time, when, as the " Sick Man," it challenges no less the attention of hu- 
manity everywhere — Turkey may not improperly receive the title which we 
have ventured to give to it, that of the hinge of the eastern continent. Shorn, 
by the exigencies of war and the devastation of foreign hosts, of much of its 
ancient dominion, the Ottoman Empire at present comprises, besides Turkey 
in Asia and Turkey in Europe, the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, 
Servia and Montenegro, in Europe ; Egypt, with Nubia, Tripoli and Tunis, in 
Africa ; and a part of Arabia, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in 
A^a. 

I The religion of the Turk is Mahomtean. He believes in one God, 
Allah, and Mahomet, his prophet. The simplicity of the faith and the spir- 
ituality of its practice, involving devout prayer to one Supreme Being several 
times in the course of the day, does produce certain ennobling effects. The 
Turk faithfully follows out his religious obligations in a way which might put 
many Christians to shame ; and he is sober in regard to wine, as strictly en- 
joined by his scriptures, the Koran./ But the exceedingly coarse nature of 
the heaven which Mahomet promised to his faithful disciples is such as to undo 
all the good effects of their abstinence here. Eating and drinking, and all 
sensual delights, are what the Turk looks forward to when he shall be clothed 
with his new body, as the reward of the virtues he is commanded to practise 
on earth ; and he is not at all sure, indeed it is more than doubtful, whether 
his wives and daucrhters will share the bliss. Thus the domestic affections are 
unsupported by the spiritual hopes which nourish the beautiful blossoms of 
love in a Christian home. His paradise is at best a very questionable one in 
point of goodness, and such as it is, he looks forward to it selfishly. 

Some of the leading articles of belief are : i. There is but one God. 2. 
There are angels of various ranks ; among them a fallen spirit, Eblis, driven 
from Paradise for refusing to worship Adam ; also inferior spirits, liable to 
death, called Genii and Peris. 3. There are six great prophets — Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mahomet. 4. There is a hell, called Jehennam, and 
a Paradise of wondrous beauty, full of sensual delights. 5. Men have no 
free-will ; but all things are ruled by an unchanging fate — a doctrine tending 
at first to kindle reckless fury in battle, but in the hour of peace a source of 
cofroding indolence. 

^ Devout Moslems practise four great religious duties: i. Washing, of 
curious nicety, followed by prayers five times a day, with the face towards 
Mecca. 2. The giving of one-tenth in charity. 3. Fasting from rise to set 
of sun during the thirty days of the month Rhamadan. Pork and wine are 
specially forbidden at all times. 4. A pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in 
a lifetime, which, however, may be performed by proxy. I 

As the time appointed for the resurrection approaches, the sun will rise in 
the west ; beasts and inanimate things will speak ; and, finally, a wind will 



TURKEY. 387 

sweep away the souls of those who have faith, even if equal only to a grain 
of mustard-seed, so that the world shall be left in ignorance. After this shall 
come the last day. Then forty years of oblivion, followed by the resurrection. 

Next, the day of judgment, when the righteous shall enter paradise, and 
the wicked hell ; both, however, having first to go over the bridge Al Sirat, 
laid over the midst of hell, finer than a hair, sharper than the edge of a sword 
and beset with thorns on every side. Upon this uncomfortable thoroughfare 
the righteous will proceed with ease and swiftness ; but the wicked, probably 
overweighted by their sins, will be precipitated headlong into hell — a place di- 
vided by the Koran into seven stories or apartments, respectively assigned to 
Mahometans, Jews, Christians, Sabians, Magians, idolaters; and the, lowest 
of all to the hypocrites, who, outwardly professing religion, in reality had 
none. 

Of Mahomet himself we will speak hereafter when we come to treat 
of Arabia. The Arabians who followed Mahomet were called Saracens, 
The kings or rulers of the Saracen Empire were called Caliphs, and resided 
at Bagdad, a splendid city which they bui'lt on the river Tigris, in Mesopotamia. 
These caliphs extended their empire over a considerable part of Asia and 
Africa, and some portions of Europe. 

To the north of Mesopotamia there were several tribes of Tartars, among- 
which were some called Turks. These were daring warriors, and such was 
their fame that the caliphs induced many of them to come to Bagdad and 
serve as soldiers. 

In process of time, the Turks acquired great influence at Bagdad, and 
finally overturned the Saracen Empire, made themselves masters of nearly all 
the Saracen possessions, ind adopted the Mahometan religion. Thus the 
Turkish Empire became the successor of the Saracen Empire, and included in 
its dominions Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and other Asiatic countries which 
the Saracens had conquered from the Greek Empire. 

In the year 1356 the Emir (a Turkish name for commander) Solyman 
crossed the Hellespont and seized a castle on the European shore. This 
event marks the first firm footing gained by the Turks on European soil ; and 
they never since have lost their hold. 

Under Amurath I. (1360-1389) Adrianople, being taken by the Turks, 
was made for a time the centre of their European possessions. A league was 
formed by the Sclavonic nations along the Danube to repel the infidel in- 
vaders, but in vain. The crescent — such was the device borne on the Turkish 
banners — still shone victorious in Thrace and Servia. 

Bajazet, a drunken sensualist, who, succeeding his father, reigned from 
1389 to 1402, exchanged the title Emir for the prouder name of Sultan. At 
Nicopolis he routed the chivalry of Hungary and France, which had mustered 
to roll back the dark fiood of Moslem war. Classic Greece, too, was ravaged 



388 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

by his victorious hordes. Steadily he seemed to be advancing in the gigantic 
plan of European conquest sketched out by his ambitious father, when the 
most terrific warrior Asia has ever borne, rising on his eastern frontier, dashed 
his power into fragments. 

This was Timour the Lame, whose name has been corrupted into Tamer- 
lane, a Mongol descended from Zenghis Khan. From his capital, Samarcand, 
he spread his conquests on every side — from the Chinese wall to the Nile ; 
from the springs of the Ganges to the heart of Russia. Whenever this demon 
conqueror took a city, he raised as a trophy of his success a pyramid of bleed- 
ing human heads. Bajazet was obliged to forego the intended siege of Con- 
stantinople by the attack of the ferocious Mongol upon the eastern frontier of 
his newly-acquired dominions in Asia Minor. The decisive battle was fought 
at Angora, where Bajazet, utterly defeated, was made prisoner. Carried 
about with the Mongol ami)- in a litter with iron lattices, which gave rise to 
the common story of his imprisonment in an iron cage, the Turkish sultan 
died, eight months after, of a broken heart. His conqueror, Timour, died in 
1405, while on the march to invade China. 

Four Turkish sultans reigned between the wretched Bajazet and the con- 
queror of Constantinople. 

Amurath II., last of the four, having died at Adrianople in 1451, his son 
Mahomet, crossing rapidly to Europe, was crowned second sultan of that 
name. He was a terrible compound of first literary taste with revolting 
cruelty and lust. One of his very first acts after he became sultan was to 
cause his infant brother to be drowned, while the baby's mother was congratu- 
lating him on his accession. 

The throne of the Eastern Empire was then filled by Constantine Palae- 
ologus, no unworthy wearer of the purple. Limb after limb had been lopped 
from the great trunk. There was still life in the heart, though it throbbed 
with feeble pulses ; but now came the mortal thrust. 

After more than a year of busy preparation, 70,000 Turks, commanded by 
Mahomet II. in person, sat down in the spring of 1453 before Constantinople. 
Their lines stretched across the landward or western side of the triangle on 
which the city was built. A double wall, and a great ditch 100 feet deep, lay 
in their front; and within this rampart the Emperor Constantine marshalled 
his little band of defenders. 

The sieee besfan. On both sides cannon and muskets of a rude kind were 
used. One great gun deserves special notice. It was cast by a European 
brass-founder at Adrianople, and threw a stone ball of 600 pounds to the dis- 
tance of a mile. But such a cannon could be fired only six or seven times a 
day. Lances and arrows flew thick from both lines ; and heavy stones from 
the ballists filled up the pauses of the cannonade. 

The sultan, feeling that his attack by land must be seconded by sea, 



TURKEY. 



389. 




formed a bold plan. 
It was to convey a 
part of his fleet over- 
land from the Pro- 
pontis, and launch 
them in the upper 
end of the harbor. 
The distance was six 
miles ; but, by means 
of rollers running on 
a tramway of greased 
planks, eighty of the 
Turkish war vessels 
were carried over the 



ru treed 



ground in 



was 



MOSQUE. 



one night. A float- 
len made, from which the 
Turkish cannon began to play with fearful ef- 
fect on the weakest side of the city. 

When the attack had lasted for seven weeks, 
a broad gap was to be seen in the central ram- 
part. Many attempts at negotiation had come 
to nothing, for Constantine refused to give up the city, and nothing else would 
satisfy the sultan. At last a day was fixed for the grand assault. At day- 
break the lonor lines of Turks made their attack. When the strength of the 
Christians was almost exhausted in endless strife with the swarms of ir- 
regular troops who led the way, the terrible Janizaries advanced. The 
storm grew louder, the' rattle of the Turkish drums minoling with the thunder 

o ' too 

of the ordnance. Just then the brave Giustiniani, defending the great breach, 
was wounded ; and when, after this loss, the defence grew slacker, a body of 
Turks, following the Janizary, Hassan, clambered over the ruined wall into the 
city. Amid the rush Constantine Palseologus, last of the Cae.sars, fell dead, 
sabred by an unknown hand ; and with him fell the Eastern Empire. 

At noon on the same day Mahomet summoned the Moslems to prayer in the 
mosque of St. Sophia — thus establishing the rites of Islam where Christian 
worship had been held ever since the days of Constantine the Great. 

The reigns of most of the Turkish sultans have been full of crime and 
bloodshed. Sultan Selim, who began to reign in 151 2, invaded Egypt and 
conquered it. The Egyptian soldiers were called Mamelukes. Thousands 
of them were taken prisoners. 

After the victory the sultan ordered a splendid throne to be erected on the 
banks of the river Nile, near the gates of Cairo. Sitting on his throne, he 



390 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



caused all the Mamelukes to be massacred in his sight, and their bodies to be 
thrown into the river. 

Mahomet III., who ascended the throne in 1596, had nineteen brothers. 
These he caused to be strangled, so that they might not rob him of his power. 
Amurath the Fourth became sultan in 1621. This monster caused 14,000 
men to be murdered. The sport that pleased him best was to run about the 
streets at night with a drawn sword, cutting and slashing at everybody whom 
he met. These facts will show the reader what kind of government the 
Turks have lived under. Mahmoud the Second ascended the throne in 1808. 
He was more enlightened than his predecessors. But he was compelled to 
act with great severity. This was particularly the case in regard to the Jani- 
zaries. These were a large body of troops, established by Mahomet the 
Second in 1300, and who continued to be a very powerful body of soldiers ior 
several centuries. Though called the sultan's guards, they became more dan- 
gerous than all the other subjects of the empire. Sultan Mahmoud therefore 
determined to free himself from their power. Accordingly, in the year 1826, 
he ordered the rest of his troops to surround the Janizaries. This was done, 

and they were shot down 
and massacred without mer- 
cy. The sultan afterward 
endeavored to reform the 
manners of the Turks, and 
to make them adopt the cus- 
toms of other European na- 
tions. In this he was fol- 
lowed by his successors, Ab- 
dul Medjid and Abdul Aziz ; 
but the progress of the Turks 
in this direction has been 
very slow. 

In 1854 Russia threat- 
ened an attack on Turkey, 
which resulted in what is 
called the Eastern war, one 
of the greatest struggles 
which the world has wit- 
nessed since the fall of Na- 
ALEXANDER I. OF BULGARIA. polcoH at Waterloo in, 181 5. 

By the aid of France and England Turkey was preserved from being over, 
whelmed by Russia. In 1877, Russia again made war on Turkey and took 
from her a large portion of her territory in Europe and Asia. Alexander I., 
Prince of Bulgaria, the brother of the late Empress of Russia, was born 





DERVISHES. 



^391) 



392 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

April 5th, in the year 1857, and served with the Russian army during the war 
with Turkey. 

Constantinople, the capital of the Turkish Empire, contains 1,075,000 in- 
habitants, and is consequently the third large city in Europe ; 330,000 of 
these are Christians of various denominations. 

The city itself is built on hilly ground and, with its numerous gardens, 
cypresses, mosques, palaces, minarets and towers, presents a very splendid 
appearance as seen from the side of the Golden Horn, a branch or offset of 
the river Bosphorus. But a nearer approach reveals the characteristics com- 
mon to every eastern town : narrow, crooked, filthy streets, and miserable 
houses of wood and clay ; although, since the Crimean war, the city has been 
greatly improved in this respect. Great fires, which took place in 1865, 1866 
and 1870, swept away square miles of old wooden houses on both sides of 
the Golden Horn, and on these spaces handsome stone buildings have been 
erected in the modern European style. 

Constantinople contains many magnificent buildings, of which the mosque 
of Santa Sophia, the grandest ecclesiastical building in the Levant, is the most 
attractive. This was formerly a Christian church, and is built in the form of 
a Greek cross, 269 feet long by 243 broad, with a flattened dome 180 feet 
above the ground. Outside, the building is colored with alternate bands of 
pale red and yellow, and displays litde of the magnificence within, where rich, 
golden mosaics, porphyry columns supporting figures of arabesque patterns, 
metallic ornaments, richly-carpeted floors and other glittering and showy dis- 
plays in various materials, present altogether a very sumptuous appearance. 
The mosque of Sultan Achmet is also one of the attractions of the city. It 
has six minarets, each with two galleries. It is considered the finest speci- 
men of a purely Turkish building in Constantinople. 

One of the peculiar sights of Constantinople is the dancing dervishes. To 
see thirty-four of these strange fanatics of different sizes, ages and degrees 
of corpulence whirling about in a sort of waltzing step, which their naked 
feet perform skilfully to the sound of the music of a reed flute, is certainly a 
strange exhibition, particularly when one reflects that it is all done in the in- 
terests of religion. The howlino- dervishes have their habitation across the 
Bosphorus, over in Scutari. Here the process consists of fierce invocations, 
and heard in the midst of a thick, stifling incense, are the quaint, wilde jacula- 
tions of " Oh, Mediator ! " " Oh, Beloved ! " " Oh, Advocate ! " " In the day 
of judgment," etc., sounds certainly strange enough, and much unlike the per- 
formance of human beings ; the dervishes at length howling out their ''La 
illah — Utah la!" as if they were turning into wolves; while the motion of 
bending and gesticulating, which is performed to music at the same time, be- 
comes mechanical, and sometimes almost epileptic. 

The Turkish shopkeepers all sit upon their platform-counters robed and 



TURKEY. 393 

tiirbaned, looking as if they had been acting stories from "The Arabian 
Nights " in private theatricals the night before, and had not yet had time to 
change their clothes. They are always sitting cross-legged, generally smok- 
ing and half-dozing. Donkeys pass and bump up against the door-post, 
thieves run by pursued by angry soldiers with drawn and flashing sabres, the 
" Sick Man " himself rides past, sad and hopeless, with the ambassador at his 
elbow ; but nothing moves the calm, self-possessed shopkeeper, in his white- 
and-green turban. 

But if the men are dull, what must the women be? Shut up in a harem, 
never going out of doors unless closely veiled, not allowed to sweep their 
own floors or cook their own dinners, slaves being kept for all such purposes; 
having no religious occupations, no books, no drawing, no music, no visiting 
the poor or teaching in schools ; what in the world do they do with them- 
selves ? 

One of the great hindrances to improvement in the condition of the 
women was, until quite lately, the constant importation of Circassian slaves. 
Instead of Turkish gentlemen intermarrying with the daughters of families in 
their own class, an influx of strange wives perpetually took place, who had 
no fathers and brothers on the spot to take an interest in their welfare. In 
Christian civilization the intermarriasfe of families is the ereat cement which 
binds society together, causes men to help one another, and to love and pro- 
tect not only sons, but nephews, cousins and daughters' children. When a 
man brings a strange slave-wife, none of this takes place ; and, though an Im- 
perial firman has abolished slavery throughout the empire, Circassian pur- 
chases still take place. 

The interior of Turkey comprises a heterogeneous population of difierent 
races. Of the Turks there are the Osmanlis and Turkomans. Then there 
are Sclavs, Romans, Arnauts, Syrians, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Arabs, 
Druses, Gipsies, Tartars, Circassians, Kopts, Nubians, Berbers, etc. Of these 
the Greeks and Armenians are traders. The Turkomans and Kurds are 
herdsmen and nomads. The Sclavs, Romans and Albanians are the chief 
agriculturists in Europe, and the Osmanlis, Armenians, Syrians and Druses 
in Asia. 

Scutari, which is across the Bosphorous and in Asia, was the locality of the 
hospitals during the Crimean war. It is from Scutari that the caravans depart 
for the desert. Here there is a picturesque object called Leander's Tower, 
or, by some, the Maiden's Tower, which has a legend attached to it. Accord- 
ing to this legend, one of the sultans had a lovely little daughter, of whom he 
was so fond that he was anxious to know what the Fates had in store for her 
in the future. Through the intervention of astrology the child's nativity was 
cast ; and the reply was, that, if she survived her sixteenth birthday, her life 
would be long and happy. But she must beware of all serpents. The sul- 



394 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



tan, accordingly, caused a tower to be erected, in which was centred every- 
thing that could be procured for her accommodation and delight, and she was 
placed within it, not to leave until the time was fully passed. 

The eventful day arrived, the fair princess was dressed handsomely, await- 




CIRCASSIAN. 



ing her father's coming, who was to release his child from the prison in which 
paternal love had immured her. She was looking for the sultan when she 
perceived a small basket, covered over with fresh leaves, standing on a ledge 
which surrounded a pretty garden that had been contrived for her, such offer- 
ings being common among people who felt interested in her fate. With girl- 



TURKEY. 



395 



ish pleasure she ran to fetch the gift and, reaching it, sat down to examine its 
contents. When the sultan came, he rushed up, surprised at not being met 
by the princess — and found her evidently arrayed for the occasion, but seem- 
ingly asleep. He called to her, "My child!" No answer. An asp that 
dropped from the basket revealed that hers was the sleep of death. The ser- 
pent had been concealed among the flowers. 



l«llllli!Sll1lllllllllllliPil|llll{ 




A SULTANA'S ROOM. 

Not to Turkey can the reader look for aught that is great in literature, 
science, or art. In military courage and capacity she has shown herself never 
to have been deficient ; but when we have said this, we have said all. Whilst 
the other countries of Europe have been pressing onward in civilization, she 
has remained stationary, indeed rather retrogressive than otherwise. The 
barbaric character of the Oriental has been manifest throughout all her his- 
tory. Well might Byron exclaim : 

" Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle 

Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime? 
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle, 
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to crime ? 



'Tis the clime of the East; 'tis the land of the sun — 

Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done ? 

Oh ! wild as the accents of lovers' farewell 

Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell." 




REMAINS OF A RUINED TEMPLE AT CORINTH. 



GREECE. 




" The isles of Greece, the isles of Greece, 
Where burning Sappho loved and sung ; 
Where grew the arts of war and peace, 
Where Deles rose and Phcebus sprung; 
Eternal summer gilds them yet. 
But all, except their sun, is set." 

REECE, in regard to its situation and physical features, has been 

marked out from the beginning as a remarkable land. It juts 

^ out into the sea, so as to command easy access to the three great 



continents, Europe, Asia and Afriqa. 

The limits of ancient Greece were much more extensive than 
that of the modern kingdom. The (greatest extent of the Greek main- 
land from north to south is little more than 200 miles, and from east to 
west only 165. Including the numerous islands it embraces, the total area of 
the kingdom is 19,945 square miles. It is divided into four portions, Northern 
Greece, the Morea, the Grecian islands and the Ionian islands, which latter 
were incorporated with the Kingdom of Greece in 1864. The first is that 
portion which lies north of the Gulf of Corinth. The surface of the whole is 
generally mountainous. The climate is usually warm and delightful ; its clear 
and cloudless sky has been much celebrated, and the perfect transparency of 
the atmosphere helps to display the natural objects of its scenery in their 
highest beauty. 

(396) 



GREECE. 397 

On the plains near the coast snow is seldom seen, and the winters are 
mostly of short duration. In the centre of the Morea snow generally lies on 
the ground for several weeks. For a few weeks in February the rains fall, 
after which time spring commences. Early in March the vine and olives bud, 
and in May the corn is reaped. The olive is distinguished for its superior ex- 
cellence, and the orange, lemon, citron, fig, banana and water-melon afford the 
richest fruit. 

Bees are abundant in Greece, and the produce of honey is very great. 

The Greek nation boasts of the highest antiquity; the cities of Argos, 
Thebes, Athens, Sparta and Corinth, claim to have been founded nearly 2000 
B. c. The first constitution of Greek cities is beyond the reach of exact his- 
tory, but monarchy seems to have been the earliest form. 

The civil polity of Sparta and Athens, whose governing power began to 
lessen the influence of other states, was most successful in calling forth the 
public energies, and making small means produce great results. The prog- 
ress of military knowledge and of the more refined arts was contemporaneous 
with that of politics. Most departments of science and the fine arts, pursued 
with impatient zeal by the highly sensitive Greeks, were carried by them to a 
hio-her pitch of perfection than elsewhere in ancient and, in some respects, in 
modern times ; and their commerce, conducted by means of their colonies on 
the Black sea, and on the coasts of Italy, Sicily and Gaul, was extensive and 
important. 

In literature, in science and in art, the Greeks surpassed all other ancient 
peoples, and the world owes them a debt of everlasting gratitude. All our 
philosophical and scientific terms are derived from the Greek. In sculpture 
and in architecture the Greeks are our masters. Homer, the most ancient, as 
well as the greatest of poets, was a native of Greece. The subject of his 
great poem, the "Iliad," was the anger of Achilles during a period of the Tro- 
jan war. Troy was a large city on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, which is 
now called the Dardanelles. Paris, the son of the Trojan king, had stolen 
away the wife of Menelaus, a Greek prince. 

All the Grecian kings combined together to punish this offence. They 
sailed to Troy in 1,200 vessels, and took the city after a siege of ten years. 
This event is supposed to have occurred 1,193 years before the Christian 

era. 

The measure in which the " Iliad " is composed is called the hexameter. 
In order to give the reader an idea of this measure, as it appears in English, 
we subjoin a translation of the first few lines, in which Homer states his sub- 
ject — the wrath of his hero, Achilles. 

Observe the Homeric idea of man, indicated in the fourth line, where, 
after the souls of the heroes have departed, their bodies are spoken of as the 
heroes themselves : 



398 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

" Wrath of Pelides, O Goddess, sing of the wrath of Achilles ; 
Wo was the havoc ! and griefs unnumbered it heaped on Achaians; 
Yea, full many the stalwart spirits of heroes it hurried 
Down into Hades, allotting themselves for a prey to the bandogs 
And all carrion fowls (but the purpose of Jove was aworking). 
E'en from the time when at first these twain contended and quarrelled. 
King among men, Atrides, and kin to the Godhead, Achilles." 

One of tlie principal states of Greece was called Sparta or Lacedsemon. 
It was founded by Lelex, 1516 b. c. It had a code of laws from Lycurgus, 
who lived nearly nine centuries before Christ. He was strict and severe, but 
wise and upright. 

When Lycurgus had completed his code of laws he left Sparta. Pre- 
vious to his departure he made the people swear that they would violate none 




iirt OF 



of the laws till he should return. But he was resolved never to return. He 
committed suicide by starving himself to death ; and his remains were thrown 
into the sea by his command, so that the Spartans might not bring back his 
dead body. Thus, as Lycurgus never could return, the Spartans were bound 
by their oath to keep his laws forever. 

Athens had two celebrated lawgivers, Draco and Solon. The laws of 
Draco were so extremely severe that they were said to be written with blood, 
instead of ink. He punished even the smallest offences with death. His- 
code was soon abolished. 

About five centuries before the Christian era, Darius, King of Persia, in- 
vaded Greece with a fleet of 600 vessels and half a million of men. He 
was, however, met at Marathon by 10,000 Athenians, under Miltiades, and to- 
tally defeated. Upon gaining the victory, a soldier ran to carry the news to 
his countrymen at Athens, and so exhausted did he become upon his arrival 



GREECE. 399 

there, that he could only shout "The victory is ours!" when he fell down 
dead. Subsequently the Persian monarch, Xerxes, invaded Greece with nearly 
two millions of men on land, and more than half a million on board his fleet. 

When Xerxes arrived in Greece, it so happened that a great mountain, 
called Mount Athos, stood directly in the way that he wished his ships to sail. 
He therefore wrote a letter to the mountain, commandine it to eet out of the 
way; but Mount Athos would not stir one step. 

In order to bring his land forces from Asia into Greece, Xerxes built a 
bridge of boats across a part of the sea called the Hellespont. But the 
waves broke the bridge to pieces, and Xerxes commanded the sea to be 
whipped for its disrespectful conduct. 

The greater part of the cities of Greece submitted to Xerxes ; but Sparta 
and Athens made a stubborn resistance. Though they could muster but few 
soldiers, these were far more valiant than the Persians. One Spartan, who was 
told that the Persian arrows darkened the sun (in allusion to their vast num- 
bers), replied, "Then we will fight in the shade." 

At Thermopylae, Xerxes wished to lead his army through a narrow pas- 
sage between a mountain and the sea. Leonidas, King of Sparta, opposed 
him with 6,000 men. Seventy thousand Persians were slain in the attempt to 
break through the pass. At last, Leonidas found that the Persians could not 
be kept back any longer. He therefore sent away all but 300 men, and with 
these he remained at the pass of Thermopylse. The immense host of the 
Persians came onward like a flood ; and only one soldier of the 300 Spartans 
escaped to tell that the rest were slain. 

But Xerxes did not long continue to triumph in Greece. His fleet was de- 
feated at Salamis, and his army at Plataea. In escaping, he was forced to 
cross the Hellespont in a little fishing-vessel ; for the sea, in spite of its being 
whipped, had again broken his bridge of boats. 

After the Persian war, Cimon, Aristides and Pericles were the three prin- 
cipal men of Athens. Pericles at length became the chief person in the re- 
public. Athens was never more flourishing than while he was at the head of 
the government. He adorned the city with magnificent edifices, and rendered 
it famous for learning, poetry and beautiful works of art, such as temples, 
statues and paintings. But the Athenians were fickle, and generally ungrate- 
ful to their public benefactors ; and they sometimes ill treated Pericles. 

In the latter part of his administration, a terrible plague broke out in 
Athens. Many of the citizens fell down and died while passing through the 
streets. Dead bodies lay in heaps, one upon another. 

The illustrious Pericles was one of the victims of this pestilence. When 
he lay at the point of death, his friends praised him for the glorious deeds 
which he had achieved. " It is my greatest glory," replied Pericles, " that 
none of my acts have caused a citizen of Athens to put on mourning 



400 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Three years before the death of Pericles, a war had commenced between 
Athens and Sparta. These were now the two prnicipal states of Greece, 
and they had become jealous of each other's greatness. A fierce war fol- 
lowed, in which all the states of that part of Greece called Peloponnesus 
were engaged. This bloody strife lasted twenty-eight years. 

In the course of this war, Alcibiades made a conspicuous figure among 
the Athenians. He was the handsomest and most agreeable man in Athens. 
At one period he was greatly beloved by the people, and possessed almost 
unlimited power. But he was ambitious and destitute of principle. 

Not long after this Thebes became for a brief period the most distin- 
guished city in Greece. For this it was indebted to its able generals, Pelopi- 
das and Epaminondas. Epaminondas was one of the best men that lived in 
ancient times. His private virtues were equal to his patriotism and valor. It 
is said of him that a falsehood was never known to come from his lips — one 
of the highest praises that can be bestowed on any man. 

Shordy after the close of the Theban war Greece was conquered by 
Philip, King of Macedon. Thenceforward, Philip controlled the affairs of 
Greece till his death. Perhaps, after all, he was a better ruler than the 
Greeks could have found among themselves. 

But he had many vices, and among the rest that of drinking to excess. 
One day, just after he had risen from a banquet, he decided a certain law-case 
unjustly. The losing person cried out, "I appeal from Philip drunk, to Philip 
sober! " And, sure enough, when Philip got sober, he decided the other way. 

A poor woman, who had some business with Philip, tried in vain to obtain 
an audience. He put her off from one day to another, saying that he had no 
leisure to attend to her. " If you have no leisure to do justice, you have no 
right to be king ! " said the woman. Philip was struck with the truth of what 
the woman said, and he became more attentive to the duties of a king. 

Philip was succeeded by his son, Alexander the Great, who became king 
at the age of twenty. Alexander subdued the Grecian states in the course 
of one campaign. He was then declared generalissimo of the Greeks, and 
undertook a war against Persia. The army which he led against that country 
consisted of 35,000 men. 

He crossed the Hellespont and marched through Asia Minor toward Per- 
sia. Before reaching its borders he was met by the Persian king, Darius, 
who had collected an immense army. Alexander defeated him, and killed 
1 10,000 of his soldiers. 

He then marched to Persepolis, the capital of Persia, and burnt it to the 
ground. When Persia was completely subdued, Alexander invaded India, 
now Hindostan. One of the kings of that country was named Porus. He is 
said to have been seven feet and a half in heig^ht. This o-jo-antic kinof led a 
great army against Alexander. Porus was well provided with elephants, which 



GREECE. 401 

had been trained to rush upon the enemy, and trample them down. Alexan- 
der had no elephants, but his usual good fortune did not desert him. The 
army of Porus was routed, and he himself was taken prisoner and loaded with 
chains. 

In this degraded condition the Indian king was brought into the victor's 
tent. Alexander gazed with wonder at the enormous stature of Porus. 
Although a great conqueror, he was himself only of middle size. " How shall 
I treat you?" asked Alexander of his prisoner. "Like a king!" said Porus. 
The answer led Alexander to reflect how he himself should like to be treated, 
had he been in a similar situation ; and he was induced to behave generously 
to Porus. 

Alexander the Great was destined to owe his destruction to the wine-cup. 
While drinking at a banquet in Babylon, he was suddenly taken sick, and 
death soon conquered the conqueror. 

The Greeks, when they heard of Alexander's death, had attempted to 
regain their liberty. But their struggles were unsuccessful, and the country 
was reduced to subjection by Cassander, who had been general of Alexander's 
cavalry. Cassander died in a few years. Thenceforward, the history of 
Greece tells of nothing but crimes and revolutions and misfortunes.. 

A high place in the annals of the world will always be accorded to the 
Greek philosophers. Between six and seven hundred years before the 
Christian era there were seven philosophers, who were called the "Seven 
Wise Men of Greece ; " the philosopher Thales being considered the wisest of 
them all. 

One night, while this great philosopher was taking a walk, he looked 
upward to contemplate the stars. Being much interested in this occupation, 
he strayed out of his path and tumbled into a ditch. An old woman who 
lived in his family ran and helped him out, all covered with mud. "For the 
future, Thales," said she, "I advise you not to have your head among the 
stars, while your feet are on the earth ! " Some people think that the old 
woman was the wiser philosopher of the two. 

The philosopher Pythagoras believed that, when people died, their souls 
migrated into the bodies of animals or birds. He affirmed that his own soul 
had once lived in the body of a peacock. 

Socrates was one of the wisest and best philosophers of Greece. Indeed 
he was so wise and good, that the profligate Athenians could not suffer him to 
live. They therefore compelled him to drink poison. 

Plato was born 429 years b. c, and was for eight years the pupil of Soc- 
rates. Indeed he was that great philosopher's constant companion until the 
day of his death. He had now no ties to bind him to Athens — perhaps, 
indeed, he did not feel secure there — and he went to live at Megara with his 
friend Euclid. Then he set out upon those travels of which we hear so much 

26 



402 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




He was called Diogenes 



and know so little ; " and," says an old historian, " whilst studious youth were 
crowding to Athens from every quarter in search of Plato for their master, 

that philosopher was wandering along the banks of 
the Nile or the vast plains of a barbarous country, 
himself a disciple of the old men of Egypt." After 
storing his mind with the wisdom of the Egyptians, 
Plato is said to have gone on to Palestine and 
Phoenicia — to have reached China disguised as an 
oil merchant — to have had the " Unknown God " 
revealed to him by Jewish rabbis — and to have 
learned the secrets of the stars from Chaldean as- 
tronomers. 

Aristotle was called by Plato " the Mind of the 
PLATO. School," in recognition of his quick and powerful 

intellio-ence. In order to win time, even from sleep, Aristotle is said to have 
invented a plan of sleeping with a ball in his hand, so held over a brazen dish 
that whenever his grasp relaxed the ball would descend with a clang and 
arouse him to the resumption of his labors. 

Diogenes was the queerest philosopher of all. 
the Dog, either because he lived like a dog, or 
because he had a currish habit of snarling at every- 
body. His doctrine was, that the fewer enjoyments 
a man had the happier he was likely to be. This 
philosopher went about bare-footed, dressed in 
very shabby clothes, and carrying a bag, a jug, 
and a staff. He afterward got a great tub, which 
he used to lug about with him all day long, and 
sleep in at night. 

One day Alexander the Great came to see 
Diogenes, and found him mending his tub. It 
happened that Alexander stood in such a manner 
as to shade Diogenes from the sun, and he felt 
cold. "Diogenes," said Alexander, "you must have a very hard time of it, 
living in a tub. Can I do anything to better your condition ? " " Nothing, 
except to get out of my sunshine," replied Diogenes, who disdained to accept 
any other favor from the greatest monarch in the world. 

But not alone in epic poetry and philosophy did the Greeks attain great- 
ness. In the drama the names of ^schylus, Sophocles and Euripides are 
supreme. The Greek orator Demosthenes has never been equalled, and in 
sculpture and architecture Phidias and Praxiteles are beyond all comparison. 

We will now treat of Greece as she exists in our own day. The present 
government of Greece is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy. The 




ARISTOTLE. 



GREECE. 



403 




legislative power, since 1864, is in the hands of the king and the chamber of 
deputies. The person of the king is inviolable ; his ministers are responsible. 
The right to vote begins at the age of twenty-five, and at thirty the electors 
are elimble for election. The 

O 

deputies are chosen for four 
years, but the senators are ap- 
pointed for life by the king. 
They must, however, have at- 
tained the age of forty. The 
population of Greece, including 
the Ionian islands, is 1,457,894. 
That of Athens, with its harbor, 
Piraeus, is 50,798. The army 
amounts to 31,300 men, viz., 
14,300 regular troops, and 17,- 
000 irregular. Navy : 34 vessels, 
164 cannon, and 1,340 men. 

King George I. (Christian 
William Ferdinand Adolphus 
George) is the second son of 
the King of Denmark and 
brother of the Princess of 
Wales. He was born December 24th, 1845, ^^id served for some time in the 
Danish navy. He was married at St. Petersburg to the Princess Olga, daugh- 
ter of the Grand Duke Constantine, October 27th, 1867. The Princess Olga 
was born September 3d, 1851. 

During the year 1877, when Russia had taken up the cause of Servia and 
Bulgaria against Turkey, the Greeks also took up arms for the purpose of 
annexing those territories which contained Greek population, but were gov- 
erned by Turkey. The European powers urged Greece not to take part in 
the conflict, and, as a reward of their neutrality, they guaranteed her the pos- 
session of those territories which the Greeks coveted ; a promise which was 
not kept. The Greeks otherwise might have been masters of a great part of 
Epirus, and of Thessaly, and of the island of Crete. 

Travellers generally land at Piraeus, the port of Athens, which is about 
six miles distant, and proceed at once to the city. A little west of Piraeus, 
near the sea-shore, the throne of Xerxes was erected, that he misfht watch the 
progress of the battle of Salamis. Here he sat and saw the defeat of his fleet. 
The macadamized road to Athens follows the line of the most eastern of the 
long walls erected by Themistocles, remains of which are still visible. Since 
January, 1869, a railroad has been opened from Piraeus to Athens, which is the 
first ever constructed on the soil of Greece. 



KING EORGE I. 



404 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



The city of Athens owes its celebrity entirely to its ancient greatness and 
the numerous remains of its former works of art. The modern city presents 
very little of interest. The surrounding scenery is lovely, and the climate de- 
lightful, but the streets are narrow and winding, with mean and badly-built 
houses. 

The Acropolis, or citadel, crowns the summit of a rocky hill, which rises 
abruptly out of the plain in the midst of the city. It has been a fortress from 
the earliest ages ; it rises 1 50 feet. The walls, which are built on the edge 
of the perpendicular rock, form a circuit of nearly 7,000 feet. They are of 
great antiquity, and were built partly by the Pelagians, by Themistocles and 
Cymon, by Valerian, and latterly by the Turks and Venetians. 

A short distance to the west of this is the Areopagus, or Mars' Hill, of still 
greater interest to the Christian student, as the spot from which the apostle Paul 






• VIEW OF CRETE. 

addressed the assembled multitude of ancient Athens. On the eastern end 
was situated the celebrated Court of the Areopagas, the highest judicial court 
of Athens, whose existence is dated from the time of Cecrops, about 1500 b. c. 

Corinth was founded 1900 years b. c, and was one of the most opulent 
cides of ancient Greece. Her peculiar position on the isthmus rendered her 
the commercial centre between Europe and Asia, and the sources of her 
wealth and power were increased by the Isthmian games, which took place in 
the neighborhood every three years. In 224 b. c. she joined the Achaean 
League, and became the seat of the assemblies of that confederadon. 

It is now a miserable and thinly-populated village. The only ruins of an- 
dquity are those of the temple, situated west of the modern village. Seven 
columns still remain, five looking west, and three toward the south (the col- 
umn forming the angle being twice counted). Five have their entablature 
still resting upon them, forming the angle of the building. The columns are 



GREECE. 



405 



of the Doric order, but heavy and ill-proportioned ; they are five feet ten inches 
in diameter at the base, and are formed of limestone covered with stucco. 
Their appearance proves them to be anterior to the temple of Egina, or to the 
temple of Theseus, at Athens. It is uncertain to what divinity this building 
was consecrated; some think to Fortune, others to Minerva. Our artist has 
given a faithful representation of this temple on page 396. 

Missolonghi has been immortalized by events which occurred during the 
War of Independence. Here, in 1822, Mavrocordato, with 500 men, sustained 
a siege of two months against a Turkish force of 14,000, commanded by Omar 
ben Vrioni. In 1825 it was again besieged by the Ottoman army, and held 
out for a year against the repeated assaults of an immensely superior force. 
In April, 1826, the besieged determined to cut their way through the ranks 




^I 







ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS. 



of their opponents and escape. Placing the women in their centre, dressed as 
men, they sallied forth, but the enemy had become aware of their intention, 
and but 2,000 escaped. The remainder determined to sell their lives as dearly 
as possible, and allured the Turks into the neighborhood of the powder maga- 
zine, when the whole exploded, burying conqueror and conquered in a com- 
mon tomb. Lord Byron died at Missolonghi in 1824. 

The Greek, after having been for centuries governed and oppressed by 
the Turk, has now an independent country of his own, and it rests with him- 
self to prove whether he is worth all the passionate sympathy which has been 
expended upon him by many of his English friends, of whom the most cele- 
brated has been Lord Byron. The population of his small country is partly 



406 GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Albanian, partly Hellenic. The Albanians come from the north, and are 
of Sclave race ; the Hellenes are the real descendants of the ancient Greeks, 
and may be divided into two bodies — the Pallicares, or people of the moun- 
tains, and the Phanariotes, or commercial Greeks, who flocked home from 
Constantinople as soon as their country was independent. 

The Greek people are exceedingly pious ; they are not Roman Catholics, 
but belong to the Greek Church, of which there are four patriarchs, namely: 
of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria. The inhabitants of 
the Kingdom of Greece are under the patriarch of Constantinople, who has, 
however, accorded them a certain local independence in the management of 
their church affairs. The archbishops and bishops are paid by the state, and 
by certain dues ; but the lower clergy are exclusively supported by the fees 
paid for baptisms, marriages, burials, etc., and if this is not enough they farm 
land and even keep shops. They are married men for the most part, and 
with families, and as their churches are not endowed, like those of the English 
clergy, they are obliged to provide for their own livelihood as best they can. 
The number of small churches is immense. It is considered an act of piety to 
build one, and of sacrilege to cause one to be taken down. In Athens and 
its neighborhood there are more than three hundred, of which only five or six 
are really in good working order. The rest are small chapels, only used for 
service at rare intervals, but none of them are wholly shut up. 

An odd relic of paganism exists at Athens. There is one column stand- 
ing of an ancient temple of ^sculapius. When a friend or child is sick, the 
people sometimes take a hair from his head, or a thread from one of his gar- 
ters, and attach the two ends with wax to this pillar, expecting that the invalid 
will derive benefit from this extraordinary operation. 





THE PYRAMIDS. 



EGYPT. 




UT of the mists that surround the earliest ages the civiHzation of 
Egypt looms, like its mighty pyramids, that look down upon the 
people of to-day. Go back as far as you will, you cannot find a 
time when the Egyptians were not civilized. 

This most interesting of lands occupies the north-eastern 
i1\ corner of the African continent. The waters of the Mediterranean 
form the northern limit of its soil. Upon the south it is bounded by 
Nubia, upon the east and west by the Red sea and the Libyan desert. The 
lowest of the Nile cataracts marks the frontier between Egypt and Nubia, 
where the modern town of Assouan stands beside the river's bank, and the 
foaming waters hurry past the temple-covered islands of Elephantine and 
Philse. From the shores of the Mediterranean to the first cataract, the valley 
of the Nile measures, in a direct line from north to south, an extent of 550 
miles. The Nile runs through the midst of Egypt, from the south to the 
north. This river overflows its banks once a year, and thus fertilizes the 
country, for it very seldom rains in Egypt. 

The river begins to rise about the end of June, and continues rising until 
the first of October, at which time the traveller may have the opportunity of 
witnessing the singular appearance of the country. It then remains stationary 
a few days, and afterward gradually retires to its proper bed. At this period 

(407) 



408 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

of the year the Nile waters are charged with a thick sediment, a portion of 
which is left as a deposit upon the soil, to which it imparts the most fertilizing 
properties. 

The rise of the Nile is due to the periodical rains of Abyssinia and the 
countries farther south, whence the river derives its waters, and upon the 
greater or lesser quantity of which the height of the inundation depends. 
The chang^es in its color are in the highest desfree curious durine the inunda- 
tion. The waters are of a greenish hue ; they afterward change to a deep 
brownish-red, closely resembling the appearance of blood, and again become 
clear after subsiding into their ordinary channel. 

According to Josephus, Menes was the first king of Egypt. He ascended 
the throne 2,320 years before Christ, or 4,207 years ago. The origin, how- 
ever, of the Egyptian nation, and the history of their kings, are involved in 
the greatest obscurity and uncertainty. About 200 years later Saophis built 
the Great Pyramid, and forty years after Sen-Saophis built the Second Pyramid. 

The pyramids seem equally large at a distance of six miles as at one. Ar- 
rived at the base of the great Pyramid of Cheops, and seeing the enormous 
size of the masses of stone of which it is composed, the sense of awe pro- 
duced by these edifices is still further increased. 

Cheops, or the Great Pyramid, stands farthest north, and is the one usually 
ascended and entered by travellers. It is 780 feet high, rising from a base 
which measures 764 feet each way, and which covers eleven acres of ground ! 
It is estimated that Cheops had employed 100,000 men for ten years to make 
the causeway from the Nile to the pyramid for the purpose of conveying the 
stone, and 360,000 men twenty years to build the monument! 

The Second Pyramid was built by Sen-Saophis, son of Cheops or Saophis, 
2,083 years b. c. Its base Is 690 feet square and 447 high. It was first opened, 
in the year 1 200, by the Sultan El-Aziz Othman, son of Saladin. 

The Third Pyramid, built by Mencheres, B. c. 2040, is 2,33 feet square at 
the base, and 203 feet high. 

A short distance from the pyramids is the Sphinx — as much greater than 
all other sphinxes as the pyramids are greater than all other tombs. It is 
now so covered with sand that only the human part — the head and body — is 
visible. The whole figure is cut out of the solid rock with the exception of 
the fore-paws, and worked smooth. The cap, or royal helmet of Egypt, has 
been removed, but the shape of the top of the head explains how it was ar- 
ranged. The Sphinx was a local deity of the Egyptians, and was treated by all 
in former times with divine honors. Immediately under his breast an altar 
stood, and the smoke of the sacrifice went up into the gigantic nostrils, now 
vanished from his face. The size of the Sphinx, as given by Pliny, is, height, 
143 feet; circumference round the forehead, 102 feet. The paws of the leo- 
nine part extended 50 feet in front. 



EGYPT. 409 

It is generally understood that sphinxes were the giant representatives 
and guards of royalty. How appropriate a guard this Sphinx of sphinxes is 
to these tombs of tombs ! Though mutilated and defaced, the lonely Sphinx 
still possesses a strange and weird beauty. 

" Comely the creature is, but the comeliness is not of this world. The 
beast once worshipped is a deformity and a monster to this generation ; and 
yet you can see that those lips, so thick and heavy, were fashioned according 
to some ancient mode of beauty, some mode ot beauty now forgotten — for- 
gotten because Greece drew forth Cytherea from the Hashing foam of the 
^gean, and in her image created new forms of beauty, and made it a law 
among men that the short and proudly-wreathed lip should stand for the sign 
and main condition of loveliness through all generations to come. Yet still 
there lives on the race of those who were beautiful in the fashion of the elder 
world, and Christian girls of Coptic blood will look on you with the sad, 
serious gaze, and kiss your charitable hand with the big pouting lips of the 
very Sphinx. 

"Laugh and mock if you will at the worship of stone idols, but mark ye 
this, ye breakers of images, that in one regard the stone idol bears awful sem- 
blance of Deity — unchangefulness in the midst of change — the same seeing, 
will, and intent, forever and ever inexorable ! Upon ancient dynasties of 
Ethiopian and Egyptian kings; upon Greek and Roman, upon Arab and Ot- 
toman conquerors ; upon Napoleon, dreaming of an Eastern empire ; upon 
battle and pestilence ; upon the ceaseless misery of the Egyptian race ; upon 
keen-eyed travellers, Herodotus yesterday and Warburton to-day ; upon all 
and more, this unworldly Sphinx has watched and watched, like a providence, 
with the same earnest eyes and the same sad, tranquil mien ; and we shall die, 
and Islam shall wither away, and still that sleepless rock will lie watching and 
watching the works of a new, busy race with those same, sad, earnest eyes, and 
the same tranquil mien everlasting. You dare not mock at the Sphinx." 

At the time when they constructed these marvellous works, the ancient 
Egyptians possessed more learning and science than any other people. Their 
superior knowledge caused them to be looked upon as magicians by the 
people of other countries. 

The Egyptians had, indeed, many absurd superstitions. Their chief god- 
dess was Isis, and another deity was Osiris. Of these they made strange 
images, and worshipped them. Isis was greatly reverenced, and the people 
dedicated many splendid temples to her worship. 

An Ethiopian woman, named Nitocris, became Queen of Egypt in the year 
1678 before the Christian era. Her brother had been murdered by the 
Egyptians, and she resolved to avenge him. For this purpose Queen Nitocris 
built a palace underground, and invited the murderers of her brother to a ban- 
quet. The subterranean hall, where the banquet was prepared, was brilliantly 



410 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 




EXTERIOR OF TEMPLE OF ISIS. 



illuminated with torches. The guests were the principal men in the kingdom. 
The scene was magnificent, as they sat feasting along the table. But suddenly 

a rushinof and roarino- 
sound was heard over- 
head, and a deluge of 
water burst into the 
hall. Queen Nitocris 
had caused a river to 
flow through a secret 
passage, and it extin- 
guished the torches and 
drowned all the company 
at the banquet. 

The most renowned 
monarch that reigned 
over Egypt was Sesos- 
tris, who is also called 
Rameses. The date of 
his reign is not pre- 
cisely known, but there 
are carvings in stone, lately found in Egypt, which are more than three 
thousand years old, and supposed to present portraits of him. They are, 
doubtless, the oldest portraits, in existence. This king formed the design 
of conquering the world, and set out from Egypt with more than half a million 
of foot-soldiers, twenty-four thousand horsemen, and twenty-seven thousand 
armed chariots. His ambitious projects were partially successful. He made 
great conquests, and wherever he went he caused marble pillars to be erected 
with inscriptions on them, so that future ages might not forget his renown. 

When Sesostris went to worship in the temple, he rode in a chariot which 
was drawn by captive kings. They were harnessed like horses, four abreast; 
and their royal robes trailed in the dust as they tugged the heavy chariot 
along. But at length the proud Sesostris grew old and blind. He could no 
longer look around him and see captive kings drawing his chariot, or kneeling 
at his footstool. He then became utterly miserable, and committed suicide. 

A very famous king of Egypt was named Amenophis. He is supposed to 
be the same with Memnon, in honor of whom a temple with a gigantic statue 
was erected, of which some remains are still to be seen at Thebes. This 
statue was said to utter a joyful sound at sunrise, and a mournful sound when 
the sun set. Some modern travellers imagine that they have heard it. 

In the year 525 before the Christian era, Egypt was conquered by Cam- 
byses. King of Persia. He compelled Psammenitus, who was then king of 
Egypt, to drink bull's blood. It operated as a poison, and caused his death. 



EGYPT. 41-1 

Three hundred and thirty-two years before the Christian era, Egypt was 
conquered by Alexander the Great, King- of Macedon. Here he built a famous 
city, called Alexandria, which was for many centuries one of the most splendid 
places in the world. But the ancient city is in ruins, and modern Alexandria 
is far inferior to it. 

Alexander appointed Ptolemy, one of his generals, to be ruler of the 
country. From Ptolemy were descended a race of kings, all of whom were 
likewise called Ptolemy. They reigned over Egypt 294 years. The last of 
these kings was Ptolemy Dionysius, whose own wife made war against him, 
A battle was fought, in which Ptolemy Dionysius was defeated. He attempted 
to escape, but was drowned in the Nile. His wife, whose name was Cleopatra, 
then became sole ruler of Egypt. She was one of the most beautiful women 
that ever lived, and her talents and accomplishments were equal to her per- 
sonal beauty. But she was very wicked. Among other horrid crimes, Cle- 
opatra poisoned her brother, who was only eleven years old. Yet, though all 
the world knew what an abandoned woman she was, the greatest heroes 
could not or would not resist the enticements of her beauty. 

When Mark Antony, a Roman general, had defeated Brutus and Cassius 
at Philippi, in Greece, he summoned Cleopatra to come to Cilicia, on the 
north-eastern coast of the Mediterranean. He intended to punish her for hav- 
ing- assisted Brutus. 

As soon as Cleopatra received the summons, she hastened to obey. She 
went on board a splendid vessel, which was richly adorned with gold. The 
sails were made of the costliest silk. Instead of rough, sunburnt sailors, the 
crew consisted of lovely girls, who rowed with silver oars ; and their strokes 
kept time to melodious music. Queen Cleopatra reclined on the deck, beneath 
a silken awning. In this manner she went sailing along the river Cydnus. 
Her vessel was so magnificent, and she herself so lovely, that the whole 
spectacle appeared like a vision. Mark Antony was first warned of her ap- 
proach by the smell of delicious perfumes, which the wind wafted from the 
silken sails of the vessel. He next heard the distant strains of music, and saw 
the eleaming of the silver oars. But when he beheld the beauty of the 
Egyptian queen, he thought of nothing else. Till Mark Antony met Cleopatra 
he had been an ambitious man and a valiant warrior. But from that day for- 
ward he was nothing but her slave. 

Owing to Cleopatra's misconduct and his own, Antony was defeated by 
Octavius, another Roman general, at Actium, in Greece. He then killed him- 
self by falling on his sword. Cleopatra knew that if Octavius took her alive, 
he would carry her to Rome and expose her to the derision of the populace. 
She resolved not to endure this ignominy. Now, in Egypt there is a venomous 
reptile, called an asp, the bite of which is mortal, but not very painful. Cleo- 
patra applied one of these reptiles to her bosom. In a litde while her body 



412 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



grew benumbed, and her heart ceased to beat; and thus died the beautiful 
and wicked Queen of Egypt. This event occurred thirty years before Christ. 
After the death of Cleopatra Egypt became a province of the Roman 
Empire. It continued to belong to that power, and to the portion of it called 
the Eastern Empire, till the year 640 after the Christian era. It was then con- 
quered by the Saracens. It remained under their government upward of six 
centuries. The Saracen sovereigns were dethroned by the Mamelukes, 
whom they had trained up to be their guards. The Mamelukes ruled Egypt 
till the year 151 7, when they were conquered by the Turks. They kept pos- 
session of Egypt till the year 1798. It was then invaded by Napoleon Bona- 
parte with an army of 40,000 Frenchmen. The Turks, ever since their con- 




CAIRO. 



quest of Egypt, had kept a body of Mamelukes in their service ; these made 
a desperate resistance. A batde was fought near the pyramids, in which 
many of them were slain, and others were drowned in the Nile. Not long 
after this victory Bonaparte went back to France, and left General Kleber in 
command of the French army. 

General Kleber was a brave man, but a severe one, and his severity cost 
him his life. He had ordered an old Mussulman, named the Sheik Sada, to 
be bastinadoed on the soles of his feet. Shortly afterward, when the general 
was in a mosque, a fierce Arab rushed upon him and killed him with a dagger. 

In 1 801, the English sent Sir Ralph Abercrombie with an army to drive 
the French out of Egypt. General Menou was then the French commander. 



EGYPT. 413 

» 

Sir Ralph Abercrombie beat him at the battle of Aboukir, but was himself 
mortally wounded. 

In the course of the same year the French army sailed from Egypt back to 
France. The inhabitants lamented their departure, for the French generals 
had ruled them with more justice and moderation than their old masters, the 
Turks. Ecrypt is now governed by a successor of Mehemet Ali, who bears 
the tide of pasha, but the country is tributary to the Turkish Empire. 

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, was founded by the Arab conquerors of Egypt 
in the year 970 a. d. . The name El-Kaliireh signifies " The Victorious." 

From the citadel of Cairo is displayed a magnificent panorama. To the 
east are seen the obelisk of Heliopolis and the tombs of the Mamelukes ; to 
the south the lofty quarries of Mount Mokattem, with ruined castles, moulder- 
ing domes and the remains of other edifices ; south-west and west are the 
grand aqueduct, mosques and minarets, the Nile, the ruins of old Cairo and 
the island and groves of Rhoda ; beyond the river, on the south-west, the 
town Ghizeh, amid groves of sycamore, fig and palm trees ; still more remote, 
the pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkara, and beyond these the great Libyan des- 
ert. In the northern direction may be seen the green plains of the delta, 
sprinkled with white edifices ; and to the north and north-east of the spectator 
is the city of Cairo, with her 400 mosques, whose sunlit domes are glistening 
in the sun. It is a never-to-be-forgotten sight. 

To those who are fond of fun and amusement, the excitement going on in 
Cairo from morning till night is immense. Dragomans — black, yellow and 
white — splendidly dressed in flowing trowsers, silk and satin vests, embroid- 
ered jackets and immense turbans, quarrelling with the donkey-owners, who 
are quarrelling and finding fault with the donkey-drivers, who are doing the 
same with the donkeys. The traveller threatens to belabor the dragoman, 
the dragoman does belabor the owner, the owner belabors the boy and the 
boy the donkey, and none of them seem to care much for it. Add to this 
half a dozen mountebanks ; a dozen dealers in relics, turbans and handker- 
chiefs ; fifty dogs, one of whom is playing circus with a monkey on his back; 
a snake-charmer, with a bagful of immense snakes, all standing erect (if a 
snake can be said to stand), with fangs protruding, ready to make a plunge at 
their conqueror, who offers to swallow any one of them for a shilling, and you 
have a faint idea of what is daily going on. 

Besides the Mahometans, who of course constitute the bulk of the in- 
habitants of Cairo, and who number nearly 250,000, there are some 30,000 or 
40,000 of other sects and countries; such as Copts (native Egyptian Chris- 
tians), Jews, Greeks, Armenians and Franks. These are generally to be dis- 
tinguished from the Mahometans by their dress and their complexion, 
though of the latter there are many shades among all classes. 

Alexandria, the seaport and commercial capital of Egypt, contains nearly 



414 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

three hundred thousand inhabitants. The main objects of interest here are 
Pompey's Pillar, which is of red polished granite, and loo feet in height; and 
Cleopatra's Needles, which were quarried in the reign of Thothmes III., 
1495 B. c, and are consequently now 3,382 years old. 

The Egyptian native is gentle, and travellers who always go armed to the 
teeth take a great deal of unnecessary trouble. They will meet with plenty 
of cheating and lying ; but that is generally the worst. Instances ot robbery 
and murder are comparatively rare. The people are now commonly called 
Arabs, but the rulers are Turks ; and in the seaport towns on the delta of the 
Nile is a great population of Christians, merchants from all the Mediterranean 
ports, and also Copts and Armenians. 

In Egypt, Arabia and Persia, the fruit of the date palm and doum palm 
trees forms the principal food of the people, and a man's wealth is computed 
by the number of such palms he possesses. Both the date and the doum 
palm are found in Egypt, but the former disappears as the traveller descends 
the Nile and enters Nubia. 

Abydos, alluded to in Byron's celebrated poem, " The Bride of Abydos," 
owes its importance to the fact that the god Osiris was buried here, and rich 
Egyptians from all parts wished to have their bodies lie in the sacred dust 
which their god had hallowed. The tombs are very old, and date back to the 
sixteenth and seventeenth dynasties. 

The principal ruins, which cover a great extent, are the Memnonium, or 
palace of Memnon, the Temple of Osiris, and the Necropolis. 

The Temple of Osiris lies north of the Memnonium : this was one of the 
temples the most revered in Egypt. It was here that, in 1808, the famous in- 
scription, now in the British Museum, known under the name of the Table of 
Abydos, was found. It contained originally the names of all the ancestors of 
Rameses the Great, which agree with the names of the oldest of the Phara- 
ohs, which were found at the Memnonium at Thebes. Part of the tablet was 
unfortunately destroyed, and some of the names lost. 

North of the Temple of Osiris lies the Necropolis, or burial-ground, where 
ma,y be seen numerous tombstones of the time of Osirtasen ; here was also a 
colossal statue of that Pharaoh, now in the museum of Cairo. 

Let us now take a glance at Thebes, the most celebrated and magnificent 
of the ancient capitals of Egypt; the capital of the kingdom of the Pharaohs 
when in the zenith of their power, and whose remains exceed in extent and 
grandeur all the most lively imagination can depict. No written account can 
ever give an adequate impression of the effect, past and present, of its tem- 
ples,- palaces, obelisks, colossal statues, sphinxes and sculptures of various 
kinds. They continue from age to age to excite the awe and admiration of 
the spectator. To have seen the monuments of Thebes is to have seen the 
Egyptians as they lived and moved before the eyes of Moses. To have seen 




DOUM PALMS OF UPPER EGYPT. 



(415) 



416 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

the tombs of Thebes is to have seen the whole religion of the Eg)^ptians at 
the most solemn moments of their lives. Nothing that can be said about them 
will prepare the traveller for their extraordinary grandeur. 

" Not all proud Thebes' unrivalled walls contain, 
The world's great empress on the Egyptian plain, 
That spreads her conquest o'er a thousand states, 
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates, 
Two hundred horsemen and two hundred cars 
From each wide portal issuing to the wars." 

The most striking of the ruins are those of Karnak and Luxor, on the 
eastern bank of the river, with the Memnonium, Medinet Haboo, Koornah, 
Tombs of the Priests, Tombs of the Kings and the Vocal Memnon, on the 
western side. The sanctuary of Ammon, a small granite edifice founded by 
Osirtasen, with the vestiges of the earliest temples around, is the centre of 
the vast collection of palaces and temples which is called Karnak. 

Among the ruins of the Memnonium are the fragments of the stupendous 
colossal statue of Rameses the Great. It has been broken off at the waist, 
and the upper part now lies prostrate on the ground. This enormous statue 
measures sixty-three feet round the shoulders, and thirteen feet from the crown 
of the head to the top of the shoulders. The Arabs have scooped millstones 
out of his face, but you can still see what he was — the largest statue in the 
world. Rameses rested here in awful majesty, after the conquest of the whole 
of the then known world. Next to the wonder excited by the boldness of this 
sculpture, is the labor that must have been exerted to destroy it — to destroy 
these countless statues that strew the plains of Thebes. This wholesale de- 
struction was by the orders of Cambyses, the conquering king of Persia, about 
2,400 years ago. 

The two immense colossi — one of them commonly known as the Vocal 
Memnon (the statue that, according to ancient tradition, uttered musical 
sounds when the rays of the morning sun first glowed above the eastern 
mountains) — stand, like lonely landmarks, hoary, blackened, time-worn and 
defaced, in the midst of the Theban plain. 

To any one who will take a glance at any map of Egypt, the importance 
of connecting the Red sea with the Mediterranean at the Gulf of Suez will 
be at once evident. The town of Suez is situated at the head of the gulf of 
the same name ; the Red sea dividing at its northern extremity into the gulfs 
of Akaba and Suez. The peninsular region inclosed between these two gulfs 
is a rugged mountainous wilderness, and the scene of the journey of the hosts 
of Israel ; and Suez, from the nature of the mountains on the Egyptian side, 
must have been the spot where they crossed. Not far away are the springs 
known as " Moses' Well," situated in the desert in an oasis, where, under the 




(-117) 



418 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



grateful shade of the tamarind and palm, the air laden with the perfume of 
flowers, the Arab of Suez delights to come and forget the noisome odors of 
his city abode. 

The connection of the Red sea with the Mediterranean by a canal was 
considered a desirable object at a very early period in the history of the 
world. It is even asserted that, as early as the time of the Pharaohs, such a 
canal was actually constructed, extending from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez. 
In more recent times Napoleon I. projected a canal across the isthmus. Its 
value lies in the importance of the commerce of India to the rest of the world. 

The construction of the Suez canal was carried to a successful issue by the 
French savant, Ferdinand de Lesseps, in 1869. Subsequently, by a master- 




FERRY OF KANTARA. 

piece of diplomacy, the British government purchased the khedive's shares in 
the canal ; and extreme bitterness was aroused both in France and in Russia 
by the preponderance gained by England, both commercially and politically, 
by this remarkable transaction. 

At the east side of the Suez canal lies the plain of Pelusus. The highway 
from Palestine, Syria and Persia came by this plain ; a road still exists, and a 
ferry had to be established at Kantara, which word expresses " ferry" and tells 
of the former existence of the means of crossing the waters of the lake Menzaleh 
at this place ; a lake which now exists only on the western side of the canal, 
the portion on the eastern side having dried up. 

Among the many triumphs which have been achieved by scholars in the 
nineteenth century, the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics takes a 



EGYPT. 419 

very high place. By this the history of Egypt has been unfolded, ana its 
learning and wisdom made available for the people of to-day. This great 
achievement resulted from the discovery of the famous Rosetta Stone, by a 
French artillery officer, in 1799, during the expedition to Egypt under Napo- 
leon I. The stone, which is now in the British Museum, is two feet five inches 
wide, and contains inscriptions in three kinds of writing, one in hieroglyphics, 
another in what is called demotic, or the language of the people, and the third 
in Greek. This last being known, furnished the key to the others, because 
all the inscriptions were found to be texts of the same decree, being a decree 
drawn up by the priests of Memphis in honor of their king, Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
B. c. 198. 

A large portion of the literature of Egypt comes down to us in the shape 
of historical inscriptions graven upon pyramids, obelisks and walls of temples. 
The sentences are sometimes short and abrupt ; but frequently they have a 
kind of music which is exceedingly fine. They have also what is now called 
by Egyptologists " The Book of the Dead," but which the Egyptians them- 
selves called " Coming Forth by Day." This book exhibits their religious be- 
lief, their views of the judgment after death, and the transformations of the 
blessed dead before they attained final rest. 

The ancient Egyptians are the only people known who have succeeded in 
bringing the art of embalming or mummifying to perfection. They believed 
that the soul would revisit the body after a number of years, and therefore it 
was absolutely necessary that the body should be preserved if its owner 
wished to live forever with the eods. 

In 1 88 1 were discovered the mummies of Sethi I., Thothmes II., Thothmes 
III., and Rameses II., surnamed the Great; heroes whose exploits and fame 
filled the ancient world with awe more than three thousand years ago. 

The mummy of Thothmes III. was unrolled to make certain that the mono- 
gram of his name outside indicated that the remains within were really those 
of that monarch. The inscriptions on the bandages established the fact be- 
yond all doubt. Once more human eyes gazed on the features of the man 
who had conquered Syria, and Cyprus, and Ethiopia, and raised Egypt to the 
highest pinnacle of her power. The spectacle was of brief duration ; the re- 
mains proved to be in so fragile a state that there was only time to take a hasty 
photograph, and then the features crumbled to pieces and vanished like an ap- 
parition, and so passed away from human view forever. The director of the 
Boolak Museum, to which the mummies had been taken, felt such remorse at 
the result that he refused to allow the unrolling of Rameses the Great, for fear 
of a similar catastrophe. 

Besides men and women, the Egyptians also mummified cats, crocodiles, 
snakes, birds, such as the ibis and hawk, and many other creatures. 

A region of territory in Eastern Africa, called Soudan, in itself most in- 



420 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



significant, has, by reason of recent developments, been suddenly brought to 
the notice of the civilized world, and has engaged public attention in no small 
degree. 

Soudan is the name given to that vast extent of territory in Upper Egypt 
that stretches from Nubia to the confines of Abyssinia, and from the Red sea 
to the Libyan desert. The great river Nile, composed of Bah-rel-Abiad, the 
White, Bah-rel-Azrek, the Blue Nile, and the Atbara, together with the other 
tributaries, traverses its whole length from south to north. The land, as it 
recedes from the Red sea westward, assumes an elevation of i,8oo feet. Its 
surface is rugged, rocky and mainly barren. 

This vast territory is peopled by hordes of Arabs of various tribes, whose 
number is computed to be between 30,000,000 and 40,000,000. 




EGYPTIAN FAMILY. 



The Arab — and in this nomenclature, besides the natives of Arabia proper, 
all the inhabitants of northern and half of the eastern portion of Africa are to 
be comprehended — is a singular race. Wild and ferocious, like the savages 
of the Far West, the Arabs are endowed with a keener intellect and a highly 
nervous temperament; a characteristic which has impressed itself upon the 
Spanish nation, by reason of contact. Unlike, however, the aborigines of 
America, who are stolid, content with hunting and the gratification of their 
natural wants, the Arabs are ever restless and aggressive, and prey upon their 
fellow-beings. Although very dark in complexion, they are not negroes ; their 
hair is coarse, but smooth. 

Slaves being a staple commodity among the Mussulmans, Mahometan- 
ism greatly tended to stimulate the ardor of the Arabs of Soudan to extra 



EGYPT. 421 

exertion, and the consequence has been that the negroes of Central Africa 
have been the sufferers. Frequent incursions are made into their territories 
and hordes are captured, who are either employed to till the ground for the 
benefit of their captors, or sold into slavery, both men and women ; the former, 
if young, being first denaturalized, so as to be marketable for harem service. 

The British government endeavored to put a stop to the traffic in slavery, 
and for that purpose sent out Sir Samuel Baker. But his efforts were futile, 
for he could find no sympathy or support from any one, not even from the of- 
ficials themselves ; on the contrary, everybody was against him, either from 
principle or from interested motives. It is a wonder that he was permitted to 
return alive. In his report he says: "In ordinary times many a government 
official, if he meets with a gang of slaves driven by a party of marauders to 
some distant market, with their hands bound to a log of wood behind their 
backs, will content himself with a friendly ' parley' and a handsome bribe." 

Sir Samuel discovered one case in which the Egyptian deputy-governor 
knowingly allowed a boat to pass which seemed to be laden with grain, but 
which contained more than 400 men, women and children, packed like her- 
rings below the deck where the supposed cargo was laid. 

Gordon Pasha, the celebrated " Chinese Gordon," succeeded Sir Samuel, 
with no better result. Gordon is supposed to have been killed at Khartoum, 
a city which was captured by a false prophet called the " Mahdi." 

Suakin, an important port on the Red sea, is famed as being the hottest 
place on the Red sea, if not on the globe. A conversation overheard one day 
in front of the governor's house will illustrate this. Two sentries were pac- 
inor to and fro, when one of them said: 

"Abdallah! you knew Suleiman, our brother, who died from the effects of 
the heat ?" 

"I knew him," replied Abdallah. 

" Listen, O my brother," continued Mustapha. " Last night Suleiman 
appeared to me whilst I slept, and said : ' Mustapha, Suakin is indeed hotter 
than hell — for I am in hell, as you may suppose. Hell is a cold place com- 
pared to Suakin ; so much so, that the night of my arrival there, feeling cold, 
I woke up the devil to ask him for a blanket.' Surprised, he asked me: 
' Soldier, whence came you ? ' When I told him Suakin, he replied, ' I under- 
stand ; ' and thereupon he cried out : ' Give the man from Suakin a blanket.' " 



THE BARBARY STATES. 



^i 



v^yjjLGIERS, Morocco, Tunis and Tripoli are known as the Barbary 
' ~-*^ States. They are bounded north by the Mediterranean sea, east and 
south by the desert, and west by the Atlantic ocean. These coun- 
tries of North Africa were inhabited in the time of the Romans. 
Morocco was called Mauritania; and Algiers, Numidia. These regions 
were first settled by colonies from Phoenicia, Greece and other countries. 
In this region stood the celebrated city of Carthage in ancient times. 
Its site was about ten miles north-east of the present city of Tunis. France 
had long been casting covetous eyes upon the little state of Tunis, which 
nominally was under Turkish rule, but really was independent. It possessed 
the best, virtually the only harbors of the northern coast of Africa. Lying 
immediately east of Algeria, it was an asylum for Algerian malcontents and 
the refuge of insurrectionary tribes. Algeria, since its first occupation by the 
French, has been a dangerous possession, and even at present it cannot be 
regarded as thoroughly conquered, especially in the southern districts border- 
ing on the desert. At the Berlin congress, when it was arranged that Eng- 
land, Austria and Russia should each receive a part of the Ottoman Empire, 
Count St. Vallier, the French delegate, hinted the desire of his ofovernment to 
have a share of the spoils, by opposing the dismemberment of Turkey. One 
day, while he was expressing his views to Bismarck, the chancellor shrugged 
his shoulders and said : 

"Why not take Tunis for your share? No one will oppose you." 
From that moment Count St. Vallier withdrew his opposition. A few 
months later preparations for the French expedition were being carried for- 
ward with energy and secrecy. On the pretext of chastising the Bedouins 
that had invaded Algiers, the French entered Tunisian territory. Then fol- 
lowed a series of so-called victories over the beggarly, unarmed and half- 
starved Bedouin Arabs, the bombardment of the defenceless town of Tabarca, 
expeditions against an imaginary enemy, and finally the parade march toward 
the capital. 

The country now called Morocco was conqureed by the Saracens about the 
same time with the other Barbary states. So also was Tripoli. All these 
states, except Morocco, afterward fell into the hands of the Turks. 

Three distinct races are usually included under the name of Moors, namely, 
the Arabs, the true Moors, and the Berbers. 

The Arabs came originally from the Sahara, over whose boundless wastes 
a large proportion of their race still w^ander. The Moors are essentially 
townsmen. They are the degenerate descendants of that section of the Arab 

(422) 



THE BARBARY STATES. 



423 



race, who, in the eighth century, after estabHshing the powerful kingdom of 
Fez, overran a large portion of Spain. 

The Moors fill the chief places under the government; and, notwithstand- 
ing a great inferiority in numbers, possess more power than any of the other 



races. 




LiibLiiii'i I J 



A STREET IN TUNIS. 



During a long period, the Barbary States were in the habit of fitting out 
vessels to cruise against the ships of other nations. Their prisoners were 
sold as slaves, and never returned to their own country, unless a high ransom 
was paid for them. The Americans were the first who made any considera- 
ble resistance to these outrages. In the year 1803, Commodore Preble sailed 
to the Mediterranean sea with a small American fleet. He intended to attack 



424 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Tripoli ; but one of his frigates, the Philadelphia, got aground in the harbor. 
The Turks took possession of the Philadelphia. But one night Lieutenant 
Decatur entered the harbor of Tripoli, and rowed toward the captured vessel 
with only twenty men. He leaped on board, followed by his crew, and killed 
all the Turks or drove them overboard ; the Philadelphia was then set on fire. 
After this exploit, Commodore Preble obtained some gunboats from the king 
of Naples, and with these and tiie American vessels he made an attack on the 
fortifications of Tripoli. The Pasha of Tripoli was forced to give up his 
prisoners. 

In the year 1815, Commodore Decatur — the same who had burnt the Phila- 
delphia — was sent with a fleet against Algiers. He captured their largest ves- 
sels, and compelled the Algerines, and the Tripolitans also, to agree never 
more to make slaves of Americans. 

In 18 1 6, Algiers was battered by an English fleet under the command of 
Lord Exmouth. This was the severest chastisement that the Algerines had 
ever received at that period. But in 1830 the French sent a large naval and 
military force against Algiers, commanded by Marshal Beaumont. The war 
continued for seventeen years, an Arab leader, by the name of Abdel Kader, 
making a powerful resistance to the French. At length Abdel Kader was de- 
feated and taken prisoner; so the country was conquered, and Algiers, under 
the name of Algeria, is now a province of France. 



CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. 




FRICA is less known than any other grand division of the globe. 
Many portions of the interior have never been visited by 
Europeans. The greater part of the inhabitants are negroes, 
of which there are many tribes. Some of these are intelligent, 
and live tolerably well, but the greater part are either in a savage 
or barbarous state. The climate being warm, they need little 
shelter or clothing. Their houses are therefore poor mud huts, 
or slight tenements, made of leaves or branches of trees. Their dress is often 
but a single piece of cloth tied around the waist. They are, however, a cheer- 
ful race, and spend much of their time in various amusements. 

Besides the negroes, there are several other races of Africans. The in- 
habitants, from Egypt to Abyssinia, appear to consist of the original Egyptian 
people, mixed with Turks, Arabs and others. The people of the Barbary 
States are the descendants of the ancient Carthaginians, mingled with the 
Saracens who conquered the country, together with Turks and Arabs. 

The immense Desert of Sahara — which is almost as extensive as the 



CENTRAL AND SOUTH AFRICA. 425 

whole United States — witlf part of the adjacent regions, appears to be oc- 
cupied by wandering tribes of Arabs, who move from place to place with their 
horses and camels, like the people of Arabia, for pasturage or plunder. 

Africa may be considered as, on the whole, the least civilized division of 
the earth. The people are mostly Mahometans, and one-half of them are 
nearly in a savage state. The rest are in a barbarous condition. 

The central parts of Africa abound in wild animals, such as lions, panthers, 
leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, zebras and quaggas. The woods are filled 
with chattering monkeys, the thickets are infested with monstrous serpents, 
ostriches roam over the deserts, various kinds of antelopes and deer, in vast 
herds, graze upon the plains, hippopotami are seen in the lakes and rivers, 
and crocodiles abound in the stagnant waters. Wild birds of every hue meet 
the eye of the traveller in nearly all parts of the country. 

Central and Southern Africa can hardly be said to have any history. The 
inhabitants possess no written records, and cannot tell what events have hap- 
pened to their forefathers. 

The ancients had very curious notions about Africa, for they had visited 
only the northern parts, and contented themselves with telling incredible 
stories about the remainder. They supposed that toward the eastern shore 
of the continent there were people without noses, and others who had three 
or four eyes apiece. 

In other parts of Africa there were said to be men without heads, but who 
had eyes in their breasts. Old writers speak also of a nation whose king had 
a head like a dog. There was likewise said to be a race of giants, twice as 
tall as common men and women. 

But the prettiest oi all these fables is the story of the Pigmies. These little 
people were said to be about a foot high, and were believed to dwell near the 
source of the river Nile. Their houses were built something like birds' nests, 
and their building materials were clay, feathers, and egg-shells. These Pig- 
mies used to wage terrible wars with the cranes. An immense army of them 
would set out on an expedition, some mounted on rams and goats, and others 
on foot. When an army of the Pigmies encountered an army of the cranes, 
great valor was displayed on both sides. The cranes would rush forward to 
the charge flapping their wings, and sometimes one of them would snatch up 
a Pigmy in his beak, and carry him away captive. But the Pigmies brandished 
their little swords and spears, ^nd generally succeeded in putting the enemy to 
flight. Whenever they had a chance, they would break the eggs of the cranes 
and kill the unfledged young ones without mercy. 

It was long supposed that the story of Herodotus about the Pigmies of 
Africa was altogether mythical, but within the past twenty years abundant 
evidence has accumulated of the existence of a number of tribes of curious 
little folks in equatorial Africa. The chief among these tribes are the Akka, 



426 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

whom Schweinfurth found north-west of Albert Nyassa; the Obongo, discovered 
by Du Chailki in west Africa, south-east of the Gaboon, and the Batwa, south 
of the Congo. 

These Httle people range in height from four feet two inches to about four 




SCENES IN THE LIFE OF DR. LIVINGSTONE. 

feet eight inches. They are intellectually as well as physically inferior to the 
other tribes of Africa. They are perhaps nearer the brute kingdom than any- 
other human beings. The Obongo, for instance, wear no semblance of clothing; 
make no huts except to bend over and fasten to the ground the tops of three 
or four young trees, which they cover with leaves ; possess no arts except the 




CHRISTMAS AT AN AFRICAN MISSIONARY STATION. 



(427) 



428 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

making of bows and arrows, and do not till the soil. They live on the smaller 
Sfame of the forest, and on nuts and berries. 

For many centuries the mystery of the Nile had been a wonder to all who 
dwelt upon its banks, and to travellers who came there to learn the wisdom of 
the Egyptians. It flowed from unknown regions, and for the last thousand 
miles of its course did not receive a rivulet from either side, and only at rare 
and uncertain intervals a drop of water from the clouds. For nine months of 
the year its uniform and majestic flood rolled within its steep banks. Then, 
almost at a given day, from year to year, the river, with no apparent cause, 
began to rise, overflowing its banks and transforming the narrow valley into 
a lake. In a few weeks the flood subsided, leaving behind a thin layer of 
mud, the source of all the fertility of Egypt. 

In general terms, tropical Africa consists of an elevated central plateau, 
separated from low tracts along the coast by lines of hills and mountains, 
running at various distances from the coast. There are thus three well- 
marked divisions : the low, unhealthy coast region, the mountain ranges, and 
the central plateau. Of this plateau the chief water-basins, beginning from the 
south, are those of the Zambesi, whose waters are discharged eastward into 
the Indian ocean ; the Concfo, whose waters flow westward into the Atlantic ; 
and the Nile, whose waters flow northward into the Mediterranean. 

The Congo is in volume of water second only to the Amazon. There is a 
remarkable feature connected with the Congo and the Zambesi. Both rivers 
flow three-quarters of the way across the continent, and for a considerable 
space parallel to, and at no very great distance from each other, but in op- 
posite directions ; the Zambesi from west to east, the Congo from east to west. 
The head waters of some of these affluents indeed interlock on an almost level 
table-land, which was crossed by both Livingstone and Cameron. 

David Livingstone was born near Glasgow, Scotland, in 1 813. In 1S40 
he went as a missionary to South Africa, where he showed a decided tendency 
for scientific and geographical investigations. He died on the ist oi May, 
1873, on the shores of Lake Bangweolo. From the death of Livingstone the 
interest of African discovery centres mainly upon the long journeys of Cameron 
and of Stanley. The names of Barth, Baker and Speke stand high in the list 
of African explorers. 

Livingstone thought that " we ought to encourage the Africans to cultivate 
for our markets, as the most effectual means, next to the gospel, of their eleva- 
tion." He therefore proposed the formation of stations on the Zambesi, 
beyond the Portuguese territories, but having communication through them 
with the coast. This a number of religious bodies agreed to do. Livingstone 
said that " the country is so extensive that there was no need of clashing. 
All classes of Christians find that sectarian rancor soon dies out when they are 
working together among and for the heathen." 



ASIA. 




" Now upon Syria's land of roses 
Softly the light of eve reposes, 
And like a glory the broad sun 
Hangs over sainted Lebanon ; 
Whose head in misty grandeur towers, 
And whitens with eternal sleet, 
While summer, in a vale of flowers, 
Is sleeping rosy at his feet." 

)e will now turn to Asia, the cradle of the 
human race. 
y^ The most important event in all his- 

tory was the birth of Christ, and the 
country hallowed by his footsteps has re- 
ceived, and always will retain, the name of the 

Holy Land. 

From the earliest ages of authentic history, 
Palestine (with whose ancient and sacred history every reader is familiar) has 
been the object of curiosity at once ardent and enlightened. Smce the time 
that Abraham crossed the Euphrates (3.780 years ago), a solitary traveller, 
down to the recent massacres in that unhappy country, Syria has been looked 
upon with greater attention, and described with greater accuracy and minute- 
ness than any other portion of the ancient world. 

Syria is at the present day governed by the Turks, and, like every other 
country under their sway, Is stamped with an aspect of desolation and decay. 
The term Syria is now applied, not only to what anciently bore that name, but 

to Palestine also. . 

The holy places of Palestine are eleven in number, the possession ot 

•' -^ (429) 



430 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

which by the different sects of Christians and Mussulmans has been the cause 
of many deplorable catastrophes, and will be of many more. It overthrew 
the Byzantine empire, rent Christendom asunder, and was the origin of the 
Crimean war. The jealousy is carried to such an extent in the church of the 
Holy Sepulchre to-day that they bribe the Turks to oppress each other ; and 
were it not that a Turkish guard is always present in the church, which is 
common to all Christians, they would tear one another to pieces ! 

The holy places are: i. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which covers 
some twelve or thirteen places consecrated to more than ordinary veneration 
by being in some way connected with the death and resurrection of the 
Saviour: this is common to all Christians. 2. The Church of the Nativity at 
Bethlehem, which is likewise common. 3. The Church of the Presentation 
at Jerusalem — Mahometan. 4. The Church of the Annunciation at Nazareth 
— Latin Christians. 5. The Church of St. Peter at Tiberias — Latin. 6. 
Church at Cana in Galilee — Greek Christians. 7. Church of the Flagellation 
at Jerusalem — Latin. 8. Church of the Ascension, Mount Olivet — Mahome- 
tan. 9. Tomb of the Virgin, valley of Jehoshaphat — common. 10. Grotto 
of Gethsemane — Latin. 11. Church of the Apostles — Mahometan. 

Stanley, an Eastern traveller, writes that " there is one approach to Jeru- 
salem which is really grand, namely, from Jericho and Bethany. It is the ap- 
proach by which the army of Pompey advanced — the first European army that 
ever confronted it — and it is the approach of the triumphal entry of the Gos- 
pels. Probably the first impression of every one coming from the north, west 
and the south may be summed up in the expression used by one of the mod- 
ern travellers, ' I am strangely affected, but greatly disappointed.' But no 
human being could be disappointed who first saw Jerusalem from the east. 
The beauty consists in this, that you then burst at once on the two great ra- 
vines which cut the city off from the surrounding table-land, and that then, 
and then only, you have a complete view of the Mosque of Omar." 

The only Christian monument in Jerusalem of any importance is the 
church of the Holy Sepulchre. 

This church is surmounted by two domes of different dimensions, the larger 
surmounting the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, the smaller the Greek church, 
on the site of the basilica erected by the Emperor Constantine in the fourth 
century. 

Close beside the dome stands the Minaret of Omar, which that mag- 
nanimous caliph erected that he might have the privilege of praying as nearly 
as possible to the church without interfering with the rights of the Christians. 
As you enter the door of these sacred walls, the first object that strikes your 
attention is a large, flat stone, over which several lamps are suspended, and 
numerous pilgrims approaching on their knees to kiss it. This is called the 
Stone of Unci ion, where the Lord's body was anointed before burial by the 




BIRTH OF CHRIST. 



(431) 



432 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

holy women. A few yards off is a circular stone, marking the spot where 
the Virgin Mary stood during the anointment. 

Immediately under the dome stands the Holy Sepulchre, surrounded by 
sixteen large columns, which support the gallery above. The sepulchre is a 
small building containing two chambers, built or incased with fine marble; 
you are expected to remove your shoes previous to entering: the outer cham- 
ber is about six feet by ten, in the middle of which stands a block of polished 
stone, about a foot and a half square, where the angel sat who announced the 
glad tidings of the resurrection. Through another passage you enter the 
tomb itself. Whether this be or be not the genuine tomb — and we see no rea- 
son to doubt it, answering as it does in every particular the description given 
it in holy writ — it is impossible to enter it without a feeling of holy awe and 
reverence, remembering that for 1,500 years kings and queens, knights and 
holy pilgrims, here have knelt and prayed, believing it to be the identical spot 
" where Christ triumphed over the grave, and disarmed death of his terrors." 
This is the spot pointed out to the mother of Constantine by the persecuted 
Christians, and here she erected a church ; here the Latin kings, Godfrey and 
, Baldwin, with countless numbers of knights who have died for the Holy 
Cross, have knelt and prayed. Who would not reverence the spot ! The 
tomb is about six feet square ; one-half of it is occupied by the sarcophagus, 
which rises about two feet from the floor; this is of white marble, slightly 
tinged with blue ; that is, this slab covers the elevation left in the hewing of 
the rock, which was the custom in those days. The marble is now cracked 
through about the centre. On this stone the body of Christ was laid ; on this 
stone the young man was found sitting; and here Mary saw the two angels. 
There are forty-two lamps, gold and silver, presented by sovereigns of Elurope, 
suspended above it, and continually burning. At the head of the tomb stands 
a Greek monk, reading prayers. Here continually may be seen poor pilgrims 
crawling in upon their bended knees, bathing the cold marble with their tears, 
and sobbing as if their hearts would break. 

According to a letter from Jerusalem, printed in a recent periodical, 
there are many persons in the city who hold extreme or fanciful views on re- 
ligious topics. Eighteen Americans, it is said, arrived there recently to await 
the second coming of the Lord. They are respectable, educated and appar- 
ently wealthy persons, and are to be followed by others. For many years a 
half-crazy Englishman, dressed In grave-clothes, and carrying a wooden cross 
on his shoulders, was wont to address crowds of people in the market-places 
of the city. He recently died of fever. A German woman, who regarded 
herself as " the bride of Christ," and who had prepared costly dresses in 
which to receive her Lord, went away to the Jordan recently and never re- 
turned. She died, and was buried by the natives. A young man is now in 
Jerusalem to whom it has been revealed that the Ark of the Covenant is 



ASIA. 



433 



buried in what is known as the Potter's Field. He is searching for it assidu- 
ously. Another, who is described as "a rather gentlemanlike young Jew," 
has arrived at Jerusalem, and claims to be the Messiah. 

Syria is frequendy mentioned in the Bible. About the time of Christ it 
became a Roman province. At this period its capital was Antioch, which was 
one of the most splendid cities in the world. Damascus, another city of 
Syria, 136 miles northward of Jerusalem, appears to have been known ever 
since the time of Abraham. This city was famous in later times for making 




CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 

the best swords, sabres and other cudery ; but the art which the people once 
possessed is now lost. The inhabitants of this city were also celebrated for 
manufacturing beautiful silks, to which the name of damask was given, from 
the place where they were made. Another place in Syria mentioned in the 
Bible was Tadmor, sometimes called " Tadmor in the Desert ; " this was built 
by Solomon for the convenience of his traders ; it was ten miles in extent, but 
it is now in ruins. The splendid remains of this place, consisting of columns 
and other things beautifully sculptured in stone, show that it must have been 
a rich and powerful city. In modern times it is called Palmyra. 
28 



.434 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

At the distance of thirty-seven miles north-west of Damascus are the re- 
mains of Baalbec, a very splendid city in the time of the apostles, and then 
called Heliopolis. It is now in ruins, and contains scarcely more than a thou- 
sand inhabitants. 

It has been said, that " if all the ruins of ancient Rome that are in and 
around the modern city were gathered together in one group, they would not 
equal in extent the ruins of Baalbec. 

" No, not in Egypt's ruined land. 
Nor 'mid the Grecian isles, 
Tower monuments so vast, so grand. 
As Baalbec's early piles ; 
Baalbec, thou City of the Sun, 
Why art thou silent, mighty one ? " 

Along the border of the Mediterranean sea lay what was known in ancient 
times as Phoenicia. It contained the cities of Tyre, Sidon, Ptolemais and other 
celebrated places. Tyre is probably one of the most ancient cities of the 
world, having been founded 2,700 years before the Christian era. It contains 
a population of 4,000 inhabitants, half Christians and half Mahometans. The 
present town of Sidon consists of a few narrow and dirty streets, and presents 
nothing of interest to the traveller. Ptolemais is now called Acre. It was 
besieged by Bonaparte in 1799, and he would have carried it but for the arrival 
of Sir Sydney Smith, the British general. 

Arabia consists of several separate states or nations. The whole country 
is bounded on the north by Palestine, Mesopotamia, etc. ; on the east by the 
Persian gulf and the Gulf of Ormuz ; on the south by the Indian ocean, and 
west by the Red sea. The Arabs have always been wandering tribes, and 
have dwelt in tents, amid the trackless deserts which cover a large portion of 
their country. Their early history is very imperfectly known. 

To the east of Syria lie the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, and about this 
region was Assyria, the first of the great empires of the earth. Ashur, the 
grandson of Noah, was the first ruler of Assyria. In the year 2221 b. c, that 
is, before Christ, he built the city of Nineveh, and surrounded it with walls a 
hundred feet high. It was likewise defended by fifteen hundred towers, each 
two hundred feet in height. The city was so large that a person would have 
travelled sixty miles merely in walking round it. In the year 606 b. c, the 
King of the Medes and the King of Babylon united their forces and made war 
on Assyria. They captured Nineveh and overturned the empire, which from 
this time became extinct. The conquerors completely destroyed Nineveh, 
and in a few centuries it was almost forgotten. Its site became a mere heap 
of ruins, and these were at last so covered with soil that the place where 
Nineveh was built became a matter of doubt. But a few years since, an Eng- 



ASIA. 



435 



llshman by the name of Layard caused excavations to be made on the east 
bank of the Tigris, near the present town of Mosul, and here he found the 
ruins of a superb palace, supposed to be that of Sennacherib. This spot is 
now known to be the site of the ancient Nineveh. Many curious things have 
been found here, which show how the ancient Assyrians worshipped, and how 
they made war, and how they dressed themselves, and many other interesting 

things. 

The city of Babylon, two hundred and fifty miles south of Nineveh, and 
which was founded about the same time as that city, was superior to it, both 




HILLAH, ON THE EUPHRATES. 

in size and beauty. It was situated on the river Euphrates. The walls were 
so thick that six chariots drawn by horses could be driven abreast upon the 
top, without danger of falling off on either side. 

In the city of Babylon there were magnificent gardens, belonging to the 
royal palace. They were constructed in such a manner that they appeared 
to be hanging in the air without resting on the earth. They contained large 
trees and all kinds of fruits and flowers. There was also a splendid temple 
dedicated to Belus, or Baal, who was the chief idol of the Babylonians, This 
temple was six hundred and sixty feet high, and it contained a golden image 



436 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

of Belus, forty feet in height. A modern town called Hillah has been built 
upon the place where Babylon stood. 

Babylon fell before the conquering arms of Cyrus, the King of Persia. 
Persia itself was conquered by the Saracens a. d. 632. Persia then became a 
part of the Saracen Empire. It was ruled by the caliphs, who resided at Bag- 
dad, a splendid city which they built on the river Tigris. This celebrated 
place was founded a. d. 673, and once contained two millions of inhabitants. 
It was then filled with costly buildings, but these are now mostly in ruins. 
The modern city is poorly built, and comparatively insignificant. 

Bordering upon Persia and Hindostan lies the far-famed valley of Cash- 
mere. 

" Who has not heard of the vale of Cashmere, 

With its roses, the brightest that earth ever gave, 
Its temples and grottos, and fountains as clear 

As the love-lighted eyes that hang over the wave ? 
Oh ! to see it at sunset, when warm o'er the lake 

Its splendor at parting a summer eve throws. 
Like a bride full of blushes when lingering to take 

A last look in her mirror at night ere she goes ! " — Lalla Rookh. 

Thus sanof the bard as his imagination wandered alono; the banks of the 
Indus, among Persian bowers and through the delightful valley of Cashmere. 
Who can wonder that his soul went out in rapture over the scenes that met 
his bewildered gaze within this mountain-walled region ? Its history goes 
back, through colossal monuments, chiefly of marble, beyond the dawn of 
authentic annals. Still its beauty has caused it to be the scene of many a 
struggle. 

The climate of Persia is mild, and the country abounds in beautiful and 
fragrant trees, shrubs and flowers. The people are less warlike than in former 
times. The rich live in splendid palaces, and the poor in mud huts. The 
kingdom is small compared with the vast empire of Xerxes. Persepolis, the 
ancient capital, is now a heap of ruins. Teheran and Ispahan, the two prin- 
cipal cities, are of comparatively modern date. The king generally resides in 
the city of Teheran. But he has a beautiful palace at Ispahan, called the 
Palace of Forty Pillars. Each of the forty pillars is supported by four lions of 
white marble. The whole edifice looks as if it were built of pearl and silver 
and gold and precious stones 




AVENUE OF TEMPLES. 



INDIA. 



S^^^ F the earliest period of the history of India little is known with cer- 
ill^^ ''^^ tainty. The sacred writings of the Hindoos give to their ancient 
S^pR history an incredible chronology, extending over millions of years, 
J^f^ and treat of heroes, kings and dignitaries, in most instances 
^ ' probably merely mythical or fabulous. It is the general opinion of 
l5^ the best authorities that the Hindoos were not the first inhabitants of 
the country, but were an invading race, who subdued and enslaved the 
aborigines, who are still represented by rude tribes in the central and south- 
ern parts of India. 

It is not known at what period this invasion took place, but it was un- 
doubtedly prior to the fourteenth century b. c. The language of the con- 
querors was probably the Sanskrit, in which their sacred books were written. 
The Vedas, supposed to have been compiled about the fourteenth century 

B. c, are esteemed the holiest. 

(437) 



438 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Two great dynasties — the kings of the race of the sun, and the race of the 
moon — figure in the legends of their early history, and their contests are re- 
corded in the poem known as the " Mahabharata." The most celebrated of 
these sovereigns was Rama, or Ramchunder, who is supposed to have lived 
in the twelfth or thirteenth century e. c. His deeds are the subject of the 
great epic poem, the " Ramayana." The " Ramayana " is the oldest of all epic 
poems. The " Mahabharata " contains two hundred thousand sixteen-syllable 
lines, and fills four thick quarto volumes. 

The first event in the history of India of which we have an authentic ac- 
count was the invasion by the Persians, under King Darius, about 518-521 
B. c. Long before the invasion of India by Alexander the Great, the Greeks 
travelled there in search of knowledge ; for there, more than two thousand 
four hundred years ago, says Voltaire, "the celebrated Pilpay wrote his moral 
fables, that have since been translated into all languages. All subjects what- 
ever have been treated, by way of fable or allegory, by the Orientals, and 
particularly the Indians." Hence it is that Pythagoras, who studied among 
them, and Pachymeres, a Greek of the thirteenth century, expressed them- 
selves in the spirit of Indian parables. 

India had long been subject to the Persians, and Alexander, the avenger 
of Greece and the conqueror of Darius, led his army into that part of India 
which had been tributary to his enemy. Though his soldiers were averse 
to penetrating into a region so remote and unknown, Alexander had read in 
the ancient fables of Macedonia that Bacchus and Hercules, each a son of 
Jupiter, as he believed himself to be, had marched as far, so he determined 
not to be outdone by them ; and thus the year 327 b. c. saw his legions enter- 
ing India by what is now called the Candahar route, the common track of the 
ancient caravans from northern India to Agra and Ispahan, after encountering 
incredible difficulties, and surmounting innumerable dangers. 

" Few great things have had a smaller beginning than that stupendous 
anomaly," the British Empire in India. It was in the course of 161 2, in the 
reign of James, that the agents of the company timidly established their first 
little factory at Surat. At this period, the nominal sovereigns of the whole of 
India, and the real masters and tyrants of a good part of it, were the Ma- 
hometanized Mogul Tartars — a people widely different in origin, manners, 
law and religion from the Hindoos, the aboriginal or ancient inhabitants of 
the country. 

In 1 744, France and England being at war in Europe, hostilities broke out 
between the English and French in India. Clive came to the front on the 
part of the former, while Bussy displayed admirable generalship on the part 
of the latter. In the year 1756 Surajah Dowlah seized upon Calcutta, and 
clapped 146 of the English into the " Black Hole," where all but twenty-three 
persons perished in a single night by suffocation. 



INDIA. 439 

The student of the modern history of India is famiHar with the names of 
Warren Hastings, who was elected governor-general of India, Hyder Ali, and 
his son, Tippoo Saib. Lord Cornwallis, who figured so prominently during 
our War of Independence, conducted a war against Tippoo Saib with such en- 
ergy that he compelled the latter to cede about one-half of his dominion and 
to pay in money $16,000,000. In the war which broke out in 1803 between 
the English and the Mahrattas, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington 
of the future and hero of Waterloo, did signal service, making a name that 
was afterward to be emblazoned on the bead-roll of illustrious warriors. 

The annexation of Sinde, in 1843, was followed by the wars with the 
Sikhs, who had been organized into a powerful military state by their great 
sovereign, Runjeet Singh. These hostilities led to the annexation by the 
English of the Punjaub. 

The next important event in the history of India was one which attracted 
the attention of mankind in all quarters of the globe, and forms, unquestion- 
ably, the most impressive incident in the annals of British India. This was 
the great Sepoy revolt. 

The year 1857-8 was the Hindoo sumbut 191 4, in which fell the centenary 
of Plassy, and Hindoo astrologers had long predicted that in this year the 
power of' the East India Company would terminate for ever. In the early 
part of 1857 it became apparent that a mutinous spirit had crept into the 
Bengal army. The military authorities had resolved to arm the Sepoys with 
Enfield rifles, and a new kind of cartridge, greased, in order to adapt it 
to the rifle-bore, was introduced into many of the schools of musketry m- 
struction. A report spread among the native troops that, as the cartridges in 
loading had to be torn with the teeth, the government was about to compel 
them t'o bite the fat of pigs and of cows, the former of which would be a de- 
filement to a Mussulman, and the latter would be a sacrilege in the eyes of a 
Hindoo. The wildest excitement prevailed for a time, but the substitution of 
the old for the new cartridges temporarily prevented an outbreak. Mean- 
while, though the greased cartridges had not been used elsewhere, the cry of 
danger to caste and creed was raised in many other stations. Disturbances 
occurred on February 19th at Burrampoor, on March 29th at Barrachpoor, 
where the first blood of the revolt was shed— the leader in the revolt being a 
private Sepoy in the Thirty-fourth Regiment, named Mungal Pandy— and 
April 24th at Meerut. 

On May loth a formidable rising took place at the latter station. The 
Europeans were massacred, and the mutineers marched to Delhi, where the 
garrison fraternized with them, and a second butchery was committed. In 
the north-west provinces simultaneous risings took place, and Benares, the 
sacred city on the Ganges, was in revolt on June 4th. On June 27th took 
place the horrible massacre at Cawnpore, under Nana Sahib, Rajah of Bit- 



440 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



hoor. Lucknow, the capital of Oude, mutinied. The Punjaub was saved by 
the administrative capacity of Sir John Laurence. The Presidency of Bombay 
was but httle disturbed, and that of Madras was tranquil with scarcely an ex- 
ception. Delhi was stormed September 14th, after a siege of three months. 
Two sons and two grandsons of the king were made prisoners by Captain 
Hodson, who shot them with his own hand. Cawnpore and Lucknow were 
taken from the rebels, and Gwalior was the last great battle of the campaign. 
The whole population was disarmed in the course of the spring and summer. 
One thousand three hundred and twenty-seven forts were destroyed, and 
1,367,406 stand of arms captured. Of the number of Europeans killed and 
wounded during this mutiny no accurate estimate can be procured. Hundreds 
of English women and children were put to death after the most horrible 
outrages. 

During the mutiny of 1857, the British garrison in Lucknow, numbering 
about 1,700 men, was besieged by about 10,000 mutineers. After twelve 
weeks' defence, during which the British lost Sir Henry Laurence, their com- 
mander, and suffered from the ravages of cholera, small-pox and fevers scarcely 
less than from fire and assaults of the enemy. Generals Havelock and Outram 
fought their way in with a relieving force, September 25th. The defence was 
now resumed with fresh vigor. Sir James Outram, as senior officer, taking the 
command. On November 17th, Sir Colin Campbell reached the city with re- 
inforcements. A few days later the residency was evacuated, the British 
withdrawing by night to the Dilkoosha, where, on the 25th, Sir Henry Have- 
lock died of dysentery. General Outram was left with a division at Alum- 
bagh — the. king's summer palace, about four miles from the residency — to 

watch the enemy, and the 
rest retired in safety to 
Cawnpore. In January, 
1858, Outram was subjected 
to desperate attacks at the 
Alumbagh by 30,000 rebels, 
whom he defeated with 
about one-tenth that num- 
ber of troops ; and on Feb- 
ruary 2 1 St, with six guns, 
and not quite 400 men, he 
routed another force of 20,- 
000 troops. 

In the meantime the 
insurgents had fortified 
Lucknow, and occupied it with a large force. Early in March they were be- 
sieged by Sir Colin Campbell, who effected a partial entrance on the 4th ; but 




LUCKNOW. 



INDIA. 



441 



the capture was not complete until the 21st, when the city was abandoned by 
the enemy. 

One of the most striking: events of this strugrale was the ending of the 
great Mogul Empire in India. 

The first of the Moguls who figures in Indian history was the great 
Tamerlane, who, in 1398, overran Bengal, captured Delhi and fixed upon it 
as his seat of government. But he never completed the subjugation of the 
country ; other conquests and designs called him away, and it was reserved 
for his descendant, Zahir Eddin Mahomet Baber, to complete what Timour had 
begun, and to be the founder of the Mogul dynasty in India in the year 15 19. 

In the seventeenth century the power and prosperity of the Moguls at- 
tained their height ; but toward its end the tide of the Mogul power began to 




BOM BAY. 



ebb. In the eighteenth century rebellion broke out in different portions of 
India, and the inhabitants obtained their independence. The Persians also 
invaded Bengal, captured Delhi, massacred the inhabitants and bore away 
plunder to the amount of ^600,000,000. Meanwhile, the English, who had 
outstripped all their European competitors in India, were rapidly increasing 
in power; and the result of the now inevitable struggle between the Mogul 
Empire, under a succession of effete and incapable monarchs, and the East 
India Company, represented by such men as Clive, Hastings, Coote, Welles- 
ley and Lake, could not be long doubtful. 

At length, in 1803, the Mogul emperors became simply pensioners of the 
British East India Company. The last emperor, Abul Muguffer, became 
monarch in 1837, but was then past his sixtieth year, and he held his empty 
title merely by British sufferance. 



442 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

But when the terrible mutiny of 1857 broke out, the revolted Sepoys 
flocked into Delhi from the adjacent stations, and proclaimed his restoration 
to the throne of his fathers. 

Accordingly, when Delhi was stormed on the 14th of September, the first 
care of the British was to possess themselves of the person of the aged mon- 
arch, who, with a crowd of terror-stricken followers, had taken refuge in the 
tomb of his ancestor, Humayun. Never was the capture of an emperor ef- 
fected under such extraordinary circumstances. No successful rival, sur- 
rounded by his adherents ; no victorious general at the head of his troops, was 
there to demand his sword. The handful of conquerors were scattered far and 
wide over the vast city they had just captured; and a single British subaltern 
rode to the entrance of the tomb, and dragged forth the last of the Moguls 
from amone the cowering- multitude that dared not lift a hand in his defence. 

Let the historian of the Sepoy war describe the scene : " So Hodson went 
forth and stood before all, in the open space near the beautiful gateway of 
the tomb, a solitary white man among so many, awaiting the surrender of a 
king, and the total extinction of a dynasty the most magnificent that the world 
had ever seen. It was then but a title, a tradition ; but sdll the monarch of 
the Moguls was a living influence in the hearts of the Mahometans of India. 
And truly a grander historical picture was rarely seen than that of the single 
British subaltern receiving the sword of the last of the Mogul emperors in 
the midst of a multitude of followers and retainers, grieving for the downfall 
of the house of Tamerlane and the ruin of their own fortunes." 

After his capture he was tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to trans- 
portation for life, Rangoon being chosen as his place of exile. He died there 
on November iith, 1862, and beneath the shadow of the golden pagoda lie 
the remains of the last of the Great Moguls. 

The extreme length of India, from north to south, is 1,900 miles, and its 
extreme breadth from east to west, exclusive of British Burmah, about 1,700 
miles. The Empire of India, with its feudatory states, embraces a territory 
of 1,556,836 square miles, with a population of not less than two hundred 
millions. The climate varies from that of the temperate zone in the Hima- 
layas to the tropical heat of the lowlands ; on the central and southern table- 
lands the climate is comparatively mild, the thermometer falling as low as the 
freezing point in winter. During the rainy season the fall of rain in Bengal is 
from fifty to eighty inches. The north-east monsoon begins about the middle 
of October, and brings rain from the Bay of Bengal, which falls in torrents on 
the Coromandel coast until the middle or end of December, during which 
period the opposite coast of the peninsula enjoys fair weather and northerly 
breezes. From December to June is the dry season, during which little rain 
falls. 

In many districts of India splendid monuments of architecture abound, 



INDIA. 



443 



mostly the work of past ages, and many of remote antiquity, such as the tem- 
ples of Jain and Ajmeer, and elsewhere, some of which were built long be- 
fore the Christian era, and are distinguished not only for size and splendor of 
ornamentation, but for symmetry, beauty of proportion and refinement of 
taste. The mosques, palaces and tents erected by the Mahometan emperors 
are the finests pecimens of the Saracenic style of architecture in the world. 
Those at Agra, Delhi and Lucknovv are especially remarkable for their deli- 
cacy, beauty and taste. The most wonderful structures in the country are 
probably the great rock temples in the western part of Deccan and those 
near Bombay. 

A bishop, whose exquisite taste enabled him to appreciate the beauties of 
Hindoo architecture, has remarked: "These pagans build like giants, and 
finish off their work like jewellers." 




HINDOO CODS. 



Benares is celebrated as being the ecclesiastical capital of the Hindoos. It 
has been appropriately termed the Mecca of the Hindoos. A true Brahmin 
regards it as the holiest spot on earth, and believes that future blessedness is 
secure to the worst of men who are fortunate enough to die within its pre- 
cincts. Hundreds of invalids are brought to Benares to be sanctified by so 
enviable a death. Even the water of the sacred Gang^es is holier here than 
elsewhere, and quantities of it are taken from the ghauts and conveyed by 
pious pilgrims to every part of India. 

Calcutta is the principal city in India, and has been termed, on account of 
its magnificent buildings, "The City of Palaces." The two other great cities 
of India are Madras and Bombay. 



444 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The religion of the Hindoos is Brahminism, which teaches them that there 
is one principal deity, called Brahma, and several other inferior deities, called 
Vishnu, Siva, etc. They make strange images of these, and worship them. 
The priests are called Brahmins, and instruct the people in many vain cere- 
monies and cruel superstitions. ,, 

Vishnu, however, is by many looked upon as the greatest of all gods, and 
many remarkable stories are told of him, and of his coming into this world, 
which shows the stupendous character of the Hindoo mythology. Once, when 
a child, under the name of Krishna, he is said to have swallowed some dirt, 
and his brothers ran and told their mother. She commanded him to open his 
mouth, so that she could see if they were telling the truth. He opened it, 
and she saw there The Three Worlds ! 

At another time a wicked and cruel giant had obtained supreme control 
from heaven down to hell. Vishnu came to him as a dwarf, begging alms. 
Bali, the giant, contemptuously asked the shrinking beggar what he wanted. 
Only three steps of the great giant's dominions were timidly asked. 

" The blinded Bali, mocking, gave assent, 

And looked upon him with contemptuous eye. 
Swift grew the dwarf through such immense extent, 
That one step spanned the earth, one more, the sky ! 

"Then, looking round, with haughty voice he said, 
' The third where shall I take ? O, Bali, tell ! ' 
At Vishnu's feet the tyrant placed his head, 
And instantaneously was thrust to hell." 

It is also said that once Brahma, Vishnu and Siva had a dispute as to which 
was the greatest. Vishnu said that he would yield the palm of greatness to 
whoever would reach to the crown of his head or down to the soles of his feet. 
For fifty million years Brahma soared like lightning upwards, and Siva like 
lightning dived downwards for the same length of time ; but the one could 
not reach the head, nor the other the foot. As a consequence, when they re- 
turned, they both paid due allegiance to Vishnu. 

The " Car of Juggernaut," or (more properly) Jagannatha, and the sup- 
posed enormous loss of life by devotees allowing its wheels to run over 
them, is familiar to all readers of the life and religion of Hindostan ; but the 
stories of it have no real foundation in fact. These misrepresentations have 
been repeated until they have received implicit credence over the whole globe, 
and the name of "Juggernaut" is associated only with what is cruel and 
sanguinary. Whenever there is a sympathetic murderous destruction of hu- 
man life to be denounced, "Juggernaut" becomes the type of such acts, and 
is called upon to do duty by all writers and public speakers. It is scarcely 
possible to conceive a more complete perversion of the truth ; and it may be 



INDIA. 



445 



stated that Jagannatha would to a certainty get heavy damages in any court, 
were he to prosecute his defamers. 

Jagannatha's relation to the Hindoo mythology will partly explain his true 
nature. He is one of the manifestations of Vishnu, and is supposed to be the 
same as Krishna. The forms under which Vishnu is worshipped are more or 
less connected with love, while the manifestations of Siva are, on the con- 
trary, of a fierce and terrible kind. Had the character given to Jagannatha 
been attributed to Siva, something like justification might be found for it. 

There is a well-known legend which illustrates the character of these dei- 
ties. Amonof the innumerable crods of the Hindoo Pantheon a discussion had 
arisen as to the reputation of the principal personages. One of the Devas 
at last proposed to try a practical test by which the matter might be settled. 
So he went up and kicked Siva. The result was terrible ; that god bui'st into 
a wild passion and destroyed millions of 
worlds before he calmed down again. 
The Deva then kicked Brahma. This 
deity became angry ; he grumbled and 
growled a little, but did nothing in par- 
ticular. The Deva then approached 
Vishnu, who was asleep, but awoke in- 
stantly on being kicked. He caught the 
foot that had griven the blow and, stroking- 
it with his hand, said he hoped it was not 
hurt, at the same time manifesting a 
warm anxiety, as if he had been the cause 
of pain to the Deva, or as if he had done 
him an injury. 

During the Car Festival self-immola- 
tion takes place. This, also, has been very 
much exagsferated. Hamilton, in his 
" Gazetteer," states, " that during the 
four years prior to 1820 only three cases 
occurred, one said to be accidental, and 
the other two to sfet rid of excruciating 
diseases with which the victims were tormented." 
fair estimate of the death-rate, there need be no 




HINDOO MUSICIAN. 



If this is anything like a 
hesitation in asserting, on 
the basis of statistics, that the railroad car is a much more bloodthirsty insti- 
tution than the car of Jagannatha. 

The Thugs derive their nomenclature from the Hindoo word tJmgtia, which 
means " to deceive," and were a sect of assassins, now happily exterminated 
by the British government. They roamed about the country in bands of from 
thirty to 300, and strangled to death such persons as they could decoy into 



446 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

their company. Their atrocious practices were not followed so much from 
impulses of plunder or malice, as from religious motives. They were wor- 
shippers of the goddess Kali, who presided over sensual indulgence and death. 

The movements of the professional dancing-women of India are as grace- 
ful as they are wonderful. Their agility is something marvellous, and their 
*'c/iic" if occasionally a little too expressive, is decidedly fetching. The 
nautch or dancing-girls of Calcutta are a separate and distinct corps of 
dancers. They dress in massive folds of silk down to the ground, and are 
decorated with a profusion of jewelry — bracelets, bangles and other ornaments. 
Their movements are wild and voluptuous, but seldom pass the bounds of 
modesty, as some writers have stated. 

Another class of dancers are the egg-dancers — girls who, dressed in scanty 
but gorgeous attire, place eggs on the ends of sugar-canes radiating from a 
circular frame adjusted to a pad on the head, dancing the while to the music 
of the tom-tom, and whirling round and round till the eyes of the on-lookers 
become giddy in the gazing. The egg-dance Is a very quaint and curious 
performance, and one which no visitor to India should fail to see. 

The Vale of Cashmere is undoubtedly the most beautiful and picturesque 
landscape in the world — a vast park, some ninety miles long by from thirty 
to forty wide. Everything appears arranged by a superhuman hand to de- 
light the eye ; fair fields and habitations ; rivers and lakes interspersed with 
verdant and flowery isles ; " the low whispering in boats " of all shapes and 
sizes, plied by Hanjis with intelligent countenances, shapely forms and costumes 
harmonizing most beautifully with that enchanting prospect; countless streams 
and canals winding along^ through waving rice-fields and green banks, whose 
limpid and rippling waters glisten in the sun like bands of silver. Hence it is 
that Mogul despots, so fierce elsewhere, seem to melt into human beings dur- 
ing their sojourn in Cashmere. These tyrants, like Nero, had artistic aspira- 
tions. Enchanted with the beautiful land, they took pride in embellishing it 
still more by erecting palaces and mosques, arranging terraces and laying 
out parks in the most picturesque sites, and by liberally rewarding poets for 
singing the delights of that enchanting abode. No wonder the Moguls called 
it the earthly paradise of the Indies, and that Akbar strove so hard to wrest 
it from its lawful kings. It is related that Jehan-Guir, his son and successor, 
took such a fancy to this beautiful region that he could never leave it, and 
that he declared that the loss of his crown would affect him less than that of 
Cashmere. 

Through the influence of the British government young married ladies 
have no longer before them the horrible prospect of being burned to death 
upon the funeral piles of their husbands. This inhuman custom, so long preva- 
lent in this region, only began to disappear quite recently, for in 1843, o" '^'"'^ 
death of Soonchet-Sing, uncle of the Maharajah, the Jive hundred wives which 



INDIA. 



447 



constituted his principal harem were burned alive with his body at Ramnagar, 
and twenty-five others, that he had at Jummoo, shared the same fate. In 1863 
another similar immolation took place at the violent and mysterious death of 
Jowahir-Singh, the Maharajah's cousin. Thirty-two of his widows were con- 
sumed with the remains of their late husband. On another occasion a solitary 
widow is described by an English tourist as sitting on a funeral pile with her 
husband's head upon her lap. Seized with terror at the approach of the hiss- 
ing flames, she sprang from the pile and sought to escape, but the attending 
priests, horrified at her scandalous conduct, caught her and threw her back 
upon the burning pile, where she perished, uttering screams that would have 
moved the hardest hearts. 




HINDOO PRINCESS. 



The Cashmerians are a stout, well-formed people, of Hindoo stock. Their 
complexion is brunette, and the women are very handsome. The Mahometan 
women are seldom seen abroad, and then so closely veiled are they that it is 
almost impossible to get even the slightest glimpse of their hidden beauties. 
The Hanji women, on the contrary, never cover their faces, and are remark- 
ably handsome in childhood ; but as they soon share their husband's occupa- 
tion (that of boatmen), and live mostly in the open air, their beauty fades 
very rapidly, but their features never cease to be attractive. The Cash- 
merians, as a rule, are brave, active and industrious, and fond of music, litera- 
ture and art. Their language offers many curious analogies with the San- 
scrit, but their songs are In Persian. 



448 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The Hanji class is that with which tourists are brought most in contact. 
They are, perhaps, the best of the Cashmerians, and their disposition is not 
unlike that of the Venetian gondoliers. There is the same charm about them, 
the same vivacity, the same wealth of imagination. The Cashmerian nobles 
find much pleasure in their boats, and on pleasant evenings may be heard 

" Sounds from the lake, the low whispering in boats 

As they shoot through the moonlight, the dipping of oars. 

And the wild, airy warbling that everywhere floats 

Through the groves, round the islands, as if the shores, 

Like those of Kathay, uttered rnusic, and gave 

An answer in song to the kiss of each wave. 

But the gentlest of all are those sounds full of feeling 

That soft from the lute of some lover are stealing — 

Some lover who knows all the heart-touching power 

Of a lute and a sigh in this magical hour." 

An enthusiastic author thus writes concerning India, and there is little doubt 
but that he has simply given utterance to what many have felt who have 
studied the literature and meditated upon the history of its remarkable 
people: 

" Weary of the misery songs of the Western World, weary of its air and 
steam and pain, weary of polemics and wire-drawn romance and faded senti- 
ment ! Art thou weary of all this? When that hour comes take refuge in 
India of the olden time, where the gazelle starts in the quiet noontide at the 
footstep of the solemn-eyed Brahmin. In the infinitely deep, solemnly joy- 
ful India, where man for the first and last time declared and determined to 
himself what was eternal truth, and in that faith lived and died. In that 
glorious India which gave to the world a glorious drama, like that of Shake- 
speare, and the most perfect, sublime poem ever written, in the Mahabahrata 
— a poem before which the highest flight of Milton is trifling and the genius 
of the whole West feeble." 




THE SACRED ALTAR OF HEAVEN, PEKIN. 



CHINA. 




*HE territory of the Chinese Empire is nearly the same at the 
present day that it has been for several centuries. It is bounded 
on the north by Asiatic Russia, on the east by the Pacific 
ocean, and on the south by the Chinese sea and Farther India. 
On the west there are many mountains and sandy deserts, 
which divide it from Thibet and Tartary. 

This empire is very ancient, and has continued longer than 

any other that has ever existed. It is the most populous empire 

in the world, containing about three hundred and fifty millions 

of people. Its history goes back four thousand years from the present time. 

The name of its founder was Fohi, whom some writers suppose to have been 

the same as Noah. 

There have been twenty-two dynasties, or separate families of emperors, 
who have successively ruled over China. Yet few of the emperors did any- 
thing worthy of remembrance. 



29 



(449) 



450 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

The Emperor Ching, who reigned about two thousand years ago, built a 
great wall in order to protect his dominions against the Tartars. It was 
forty-five feet high, and eighteen feet thick, and it extended over mountains 
and valleys, a distance of fifteen hundred miles. This wall still remains, 
thouo-h in a ruinous state. When Ching had completed the wall, he thought 
himself so very great an emperor that none of his predecessors were worth 
remembering. He therefore ordered all the historical writings and public 
records to be burnt. He also caused four hundred learned men, who were 
addicted to writing histories, to be buried alive. Ching survived this whole- 
sale destruction but a short time, dying after an illness of only three days, in 
the year 210 b. c. 

From this time the empire was devastated by civil wars, and dynasties suc- 
ceeded each other with great rapidity. There were fourteen between the years 
207 B. c. and A. D. 1279. At this time Kubla Khan invaded China with an im- 
mense army of Tartars. He and his descendants conquered the whole em- 
pire, and the latter governed it for many years. 

The Emperor Ching-tsa ascended thet hrone three or four centuries ago. 
A mine was discovered during his reign, and precious stones of great value 
were dug out of it. Some of them were brought to the emperor, but he 
looked scornfully at them. "Do you call these precious stones ?" cried he. 
" What are they good for ? They can neither clothe the people, nor satisfy 
their hunger." So saying, he ordered the mine to be closed up, and the 
miners to be employed in some more useful kind of labor. 

About a hundred years ago, in the reign of Yong-tching, there was the 
most terrible earthquake that had ever been known. It shook down nearly 
all the houses in the city of Pekin, and buried one hundred thousand people. 
A still greater number perished in the surrounding country. 

In 1840 a war between Great Britain and China broke out, which con- 
tinued for two years. The British government sent an expedition against the 
Chinese, which took Canton and several other places. The war continued 
till 1842, when peace was made. Soon after a treaty of commerce was made 
between China and the United States. Mr. Cushing went to China and nego- 
tiated this treaty on the part of our country. It is said that he was one day 
invited by a mandarin to dinner. Mr. Cushing was curious to know what a 
particular dish was, and not speaking Chinese, inquired: "Quack? — quack, 
quack ? " The mandarin understood him, and, shaking his head solemnly, re- 
plied : " Bow-wow ! " 

In 1852 a great insurrection began in China, headed by a native Chinese, 
Tae-ping-wang. This man had acquired some nodon of the Bible, and in his 
proclamadons he set forth some doctrines similar to those of Christianity. This 
rebellion was not suppressed until July, 1864, when Nankin, which had been 
made the rebel capital, was taken, and Tae-ping-wing committed suicide. Dur- 



CHINA. 



451 



ing the progress of this rebelHon, China was for a short time engaged in wars 
with England and France. 

The most famous man China has ever produced was Confucius, who was 
born about five hundred years before Christ. He was a learned man, and 
had many disciples or scholars, who attended his lectures and travelled about 
with him. He composed several books, which are held in great reverence, 
even to this day, by the learned Chinese. 

Pekin, the capital of the Chinese Empire, was built many centuries before 
the Christian era, though the exact date of its foundation is unknown. Its 
name sifrnifies the 

o 

"Court of the North." 
It consists of four dis- 
tinct divisions, which 
are distinguished by the 
following names : First. 
Kin-ching, or the pro- 
hibited city, containing 
only the palaces of the 
emperor and the dwell- 
ings of his immediate 
retainers; second, 
Hwang-ching, or the 
imperial city ; third, 
Nin-ching, surrounded 
by a wall sixty feet high 
and forty feet broad at 
the top ; fourth, Wai- 
ching, the Chinese city, 
with a wall thirty feet 
high and twelve feet in 
breadth. In the prohib- 
ited city are many arti- 
ficial lakes, fountains, 
hanging gardens, pavil- 
ions and flower-beds. 

Weird legends con- 
nected with the city of 
Foo-chow are numer- 
ous. It is said that a king of Foo-chow was once on his way up the moun- 
tain-side, attended by some of his soldiers. A very holy priest was sitting 
with his legs crossed, in devout meditation, directly in the king's path. A 
soldier commanded him to get out of the way ; but he remained imper» 




CHINESE HANGING GARDEN. 



452 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



tiirbably in his place. At a second, and more vehement command, he got out 
of the way, but in such a manner as to astonish the whole company. He 
rose directly up into the air for a considerable distance. The king begged him 
to descend, and promised to give him whatever he might ask. The modest 
priest responded with a simple request for as much ground as he could cover 




INTERIOR OF A CHINESE TEMPLE. 



with his robe. This was readily granted, and the priest began to spread out 
his robe, when, lo ! it expanded as he spread, until it covered the whole 
mountain-side, and the fields below, clear to the river. Thus it was that Koo- 
shan became consecrated ground. 

In a shady dell, not far from the monastery, Is a trickling rill, with high 
sides of precipitous rock. The appearance of the bed of the rill impresses 



CHINA. 453 

one with the idea that it must some time have been a stream of considerable 
size. The legend is, tliat a devout priest was once seated in meditation near 
the stream, and being disturbed by the noise of its waters, called out, "Hak /" 
(Stop !) Immediately the rush of waters ceased, and ever since the stream 
has been only an insignificant rill. 

Another legend tells how a pious priest died, and after his death his hair 
continued to erow. Barber after barber was summoned to shave it, but could 
not succeed. At last a sister of his, living many miles away, heard of the 
trouble, and made a pilgrimage to Koo-shan. When she arrived the dead 
man opened his eyes. She announced her purpose of shaving his head, which 
she did with entire success. She promised to return periodically and perform 
this kind office, which promise she faithfully kept until she was sixty years old, 
when she asked him what he would do when she died. The old man made 
no answer, but wept; and from that period his hair ceased to grow. 

On leaving the foreign settlement for the city, which is three miles away, 
we enter upon a granite bridge, with forty solid buttresses placed at irregular 
distances, and connected by stones three feet square, and varying in length 
from twenty-five to forty-five feet. On these, as sleepers, are laid the stones 
which constitute the platform of the bridge. It has granite railings, mortised 
into granite posts. For nearly a thousand years has this bridge resounded to 
the steady tramp of the multitudes, crossing and recrossing ; and it seems 
ready for another thousand years of service. So dense is the throng that we 
sometimes find it difficult to keep our footing. Here is a peddler of wonder- 
ful salve, cutting his own flesh to show the marvellous curative properties of 
his salve. Here is a dentist, with a string of hundreds of teeth, the evidence 
of his skill. He pulls no teeth with cruel forceps, however, but puts a corrod- 
ing powder about the tooth, which loosens it from the gum, until it can be 
taken out with the fingers. Here, too, are men with eyes and noses eaten 
away by disease, piteous applicants for charity. But the bridge is passed, and 
we plunge into the main street leading to the city. It is only about ten feet 
wide. There are no Avagons or carriages. All the carrying of persons or 
goods is done by men. The coolies carrying the sedan-chairs, and moving at 
a rapid pace, call out to the burden-bearers who are in the way, according to 
the burdens carried, either "Slop-buckets, out of the way!" or, "Turnips, to 
one side ! " or, " Opium, give us the road ! " 

Generally the crowd is good-natured, but once in a while there will occur 
a brisk fisticuff battle between coolies who have come into collision. On 
either side the street are stores and shops, some common enough, and others 
handsome and elegant. Swinging signs in front bear such high-sounding 
titles as " Perpetual Longevity," " Myriad Profits," " Flourishing Prosperity." 
Here is the " Eternal Happiness Oil-store," and there is the " Celestial Fra- 
grance Drug-store." 



454 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



In time of a lunar eclipse, the people turn out with gongs, drums, old tin 
pans, and anything else that will make a noise, and beat away with great vigor. 
If the eclipse is total, as the darkness increases, the pounding becomes more 
vehement and excited ; and when the whole surface is obscured the din is per- 
fectly terrific. Men shout, " Drum away ! Pound away ! The dragon has 
the moon all inside his mouth now. If we don't make him give it up, it will 
be gone forever ! " Then, as more and more of the moon's surface comes 
out clear, they encourage each other to keep on until the dreaded dragon is 
compelled to yield it up entirely. When finally the moon sails off fair and 
clear through the heavens, they go off home with gongs and drums under 




CHINESE LOCOMOTION. 



their arms, in the happy consciousness of duty discharged, and congratulating 
one another that the moon is saved for future usefulness. 

A curious wheelbarrow used by the Chinese is worth noting. The vehicle 
is weighted upon each side, and requires nice adjustment and skill in its use. 
Two persons, one on each side, balancing the other, may thus travel. Some- 
times an improvised sail is added for the purpose of assisting the driver in 
propelling it. 

Of the moral character of the Chinese it may be said that they are a very 
industrious people, and habitually gentle in their manners and behavior ; but 
that, with a curious inconsistency often seen in heathen nations, their punish- 
ments are of incredible barbarity. The most shocking pictures of Chinese 



CHINA. 



455 



tortures are to be met with, such indeed as are enough to give us the night- 
mare. What, then, must be the strange state of mind of those who inflict 
them. 

But if the Chinaman is indifferent to torture inflicted on criminals, he is 
equally so to physical pain inflicted on those he may be supposed to love — his 
female children, whose little feet he confines, in accordance with a preposter- 
ous notion of beauty, until the members are permanently dwarfed. Little 
feet are considered a distinguishing beauty of Chinese women, and a walk 
like that which may be supposed to belong to the " swaying willow," is their 
ideal of a graceful deportment. 

One notable event of 1868 was the arrival of an embassy from China, the 




CHINESE FAMILY. 



first ever sent by that exclusive empire to any foreign power. Its head was 
Honorable Anson Burlingame, an American citizen, and lately his country's 
representative in China. He had so commanded the confidence of the Chi- 
nese government that the emperor had induced him to undertake this impor- 
tant mission, not only to the United States, but to several European courts. 
The Chinese had begun to cross the Pacific in great numbers, to find employ- 
ment in California and the inland mining States. A treaty, now concluded be- 
tween the Asiatic Empire and the American Republic, guaranteed security of 
life, liberty and property to the people of either nation while in the territory 
of the other. 

Formerly Mongolia, the Corea, Cochin China, Siam, Burmah and Thibet 
were all tributary to China, and sent ambassadors to Pekin to acknowledge 



466 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

their dependence. Thus China was completely surrounded by a chain of 
smaller tributary states, and this fact helped to establish the belief that the 
Emperor of China was emperor of the whole world, as even now represented 
in popular editions of Chinese maps, on which China occupies nearly the whole 
sheet, leaving Japan, the Philippines and Europe to be represented by small 
dots. These maps are accepted and thoroughly believed in by the people in 
the interior of China. The belief that the Emperor of China rules the world, 
so earnestly propagated by the Chinese officials, found additional support 
from the fact of European ambassadors being sent to Pekin ; these being un- 
derstood by the people to be sent like the ambassadors of these tributary 
states to pay respect and do homage to the Chinese emperor. 

As a matter of fact the Chinese government does not derive much pecu- 
niary gain from Thibet, chiefly in duties levied at Ta tsien lu ; still it is a mine 
to the Chinese officials, even though it may be actually a burden pecuniarily 
to the Chinese government. The burden, however, is compensated for by 
having another dominion in the empire for the sake of prestige, and this is 
really why China is so jealous of European enterprise entering Thibet, the 
Corea, or Tonquin. 

An English official in India, once desiring to see the real color of the Thi- 
betian skin, paid the parents of a child to wash it in hot water, several waters, 
and with unlimited soap. Every effort was vain, the skin could not be reached 
through such a plating of dirt. It is said, with every show of truth, that it 
would be impossible to wash an adult Thibetan down to the skin. The beauty 
of a woman in Thibet consists in her being stout, broad, thick-set and heavily 
membered, and the accomplishments to be desired are that she should be 
above all things audacious, a good hand at a bargain and also an adept at 
repartee. 

In Thibet, if a man of means dies while the crops are standing, it would 
bring hail were he disposed of at that time, so he is pickled to await the har- 
vest. This is done by tying his head between his knees and putting him, sur- 
rounded with salt, into a bag. The bag is put in a basket, and the basket is 
sewn up well in cloth to prevent unpleasantness, and he is placed in the stable 
under the first floor to await the suitable day. Then, the day being chosea 
for his incremation, the ecclesiastics commence their prayers, etc., as many 
days ahead of the day fixed upon as the wealth of the family will allow. The 
day having arrived, he is cremated on a pile of wood saturated with melted 
butter to make it burn quickly. After that, there only remains to give a good 
dinner to the ecclesiastics and settle their bill satisfactorily. 

In Burmah and Siam the complexion is of great importance, as the natives 
wear nothing else until twelve or fourteen years of age, when, if the father is 
wealthy, they come out in a gaudy-colored silk skirt, or lungi, with a short 
jacket, and a bright handkerchief for the head; but if poor, they usually have 



CHINA. 



457 




to be contented with a string of glass beads for another year, when they ar- 
rive at the dignity of a few yards of cheap cotton cloth. 

The Chinese emigration to California has assumed such great dimensions 
that it ought to be alluded to. 

It is not, however, to be wondered at that John Chinaman is no social favor- 
ite in California — he is so very ugly ! very black of hair, very low of stature, 
" not a thing of beauty," and, 
moreover, when he laughs 
he shows his gums horribly. 
But he is most patient and 
industrious, cooks like a 
Frenchman, does up shirts 
in the laundry like an artist, 
and " never forgets to sew 
on the buttons." His first 
employment in California was 
as a house-servant, and he 
still continues to be largely 
employed in that capacity. 

He has a passion for Chinese children. 

learning, and seizes every opportunity of acquiring English. A lady, living 
in Sacramento, was obliged successively to discharge two young Chinese ser- 
vants, because they would, the moment her back was turned, mind the spelling- 
book instead of the wash-tub; and "John" keeps to his high-flown poetical 
language. " In San Francisco his sign-board literature is a study — Virtue and 
Felicity, Sincerity and Faith, are common inscriptions over his shop doors." 
A restaurateur styles his place of business the " Garden of the Golden Valley," 
and a drug store receives the appellation of " Benevolence and Longevity." 
In short, "John" is to be seen in California keeping intact all the well-known 
peculiarities of his race — a "silent man in his basket-hat, blue tunic and cloth 
shoes with wooden soles — this man of the long pigtail and bare neck, the re- 
strained, eager eyes and the yellow, serene, impassive face." 

But the worst of him as an emigrant is, that he does not come to stay, and 
so cannot be educated into a responsible citizen. His whole aim is to ac- 
cumulate two or three hundred dollars — wealth to him — and then recross the 
Pacific. He holds the worship of his dead ancestors to be a fundamental 
part of his religion, and every particle of their dust is sacred. This is the 
reason of his insuperable objection to the introduction of railways into China; 
he is afraid they will plough up this sacred dust. So he cannot himself en- 
dure the thought of resting elsewhere ; and when he dies in California, he 
leaves strict orders that his " remains," sometimes his embalmed body, but 
usually his bones (boiled and stripped of flesh, that they may be packed com- 
pactly in boxes, to reduce the cost of transportation), shall be sent home, 
5,000 miles, for burial, by the company to which he belonged. 



JAPAN. 



JAPAN is an extensive empire, 
containing 26,000,000 of in- 
habitants. These live to the 
east of China, upon several isl- 
ands, of which Niphon is the 
largest. The people live crowd- 
ed together in large cities, and re- 
semble the Chinese in their re- 
ligion, manners and customs. 

It is uncertain whether the an- 
cient nations knew anything of 
this empire, and its early history 
is almost unknown. It is probable 
it has remained with little change 
for thousands of years. Its exist- 
ence was first ascertained by the 
Europeans about the year 1400; 
but as strangers are not permitted 
to travel in the country, very little 
is found out concerning it. A 
treaty of peace and commerce 
was made between this country 
and the United States in 1854. 

Japan has a temporal and a 
spiritual emperor. The first is 
called the Tycoon ; the latter, the 
Mikado, and he lives in complete 
seclusion in the little principality 
of Kioto, where he is venerated 
as a god and surrounded by a 
strict ceremonial. The political 
organization is complicated, the 
Tycoon having thirteen council- 
lors, five of whom are chosen 
from vassal princes, thirty-eight 
from among the hereditary nobility. It is these councillors who really 
govern, the Tycoon being understood to assent to their propositions; and if 
he cannot or will not do so, then he is expected to resign in favor of his next 
heir. In fact, the government is a sort of constitutional monarchy. 

(458) 




JAPANESE LADY. 



JAPAN. 459 

The population is divided into castes, which are hereditary, as in ancient 
Eo-ypt. The vassal princes, the hereditary nobility, the priests, soldiers, doc- 
tors, civil functionaries, etc., all following their callings, from father to son. 
The first four castes only have the right to wear swords and wide trousers. 
The peasants belong to the soil. 

The singular charms of their land have developed an aesthetic side to the 
character of the people that is discoverable not only in their intense love of 
flowers, but, indeed, as well in the passionate admiration of attractive views 
of land and sea. As landscape gardeners they are artists, creating marvels of 
picturesque beauty on an area of ground that others would think it hopeless 
to attempt improving. On all the roads and pathways throughout the country, 
wherever there is an especially fine view to be obtained, a resting-place is to 
be found, and rustic seats provided for the convenience of the wayfarer ; and 
wherever there is travel sufficient to warrant it, there will be found tea-houses, 
located at every point of more than ordinary attraction as regards scenery. 

The Japanese are lovers of nature in all its phases. Their life may be 
said to be in full communion with the natural. All their temple grounds, and 
places devoted to wayside shrines, are indicative of their appreciation of the 
beautiful. Groves of trees encompass these places. No one is found with- 
out its surroundings of forest growth, and in most cases high elevations are 
selected, from which the view is fine and extended, on which to build their 
temples. It is the same with the burial-places of the dead. Under the sigh- 
ing branches of the cedars and pines the dead are placed, to await the final 
destiny of all things, and their tombs are decorated with garlands and wreaths 
of fresh flowers, placed by loving and reverent hands. 

The religion of the people brings them into unison with nature, because 
they see their gods in all that surrounds them. Their legends tell of strange 
manifestations of power in the creation of their land, and the production of 
what they eat and what their eyes look upon. Gods of the hills and moun- 
. tains, gods of the sea and gods of the flowers, are to them verities and not 
conceptions, tangible forms and not myths. In worshipping at nature's shrine 
they honor the gods. They may be said to be highly civilized, and there is a 
vigor and originality about their mechanical and artistic work which surpasses 
that of the kindred Chinese ; but they have always raised such obstinate ob- 
jections to communication with other nations, that it is only of late years we 
have been able to penetrate the mystery of their political and social condition. 

The best idea of the people is to be got from their own artistic produc- 
tions. Engravings, sketches in Chinese ink and colored prints, are to be 
bought in the shops of the principal towns ; and though the perspective, light, 
and shade is of a peculiar sort, these works of art are very graphic, and rep- 
resent all sorts of scenes and ceremonies to which a foreigner could with dif- 
ficulty get access, if at all. 



460 



GOLDEN TREASURY. 



The Japanese are a somewhat diminutive race, the men being rather over 
five feet tall, and the women between four and five ; showing a considerable 
disproportion between the two sexes. They have large heads, prominent 
cheek bones and features of a more regular and intelligent type than that of 
the Chinese. Their skin is also of different shades of brown, varying from 
dark to nearly fair; but it is never yellow. The young people and children 
have a good deal of color. . The women of the upper classes are very fair, 
and esteem a delicate complexion as an evidence of rank ; but they never 
come up to our notions of beauty, on account of their eyes being set too ob- 
liquely in the head. This marked peculiarity is observable in all the Japanese 




JAPANESE FAMILY. 



paintings, of which numerous examples are to be seen in the United States 
now. The faces of both sexes are, however, mobile, and exhibit great variety 
in expression ; they are therefore more attractive than those of other Asiatic 
nations. 

The Japanese only marries one wife, and the women enter very young 
upon household cares. These, however, are not so heavy as with us, for the 
houses contain little or no furniture — unless mattingf be considered as such — for 
on mating the Japanese family sits, eats and sleeps. In the morning the citizen 
puts away his pillows and coverlids, sweeps out his room and all is done. In 
the evening he shuts up his shutters and pulls out his bedding, and sub-di- 
vides his house ingeniously with screens, and all his preparations are made. 



JAPAN. 461 

The Japanese women wear their hair elaborately dressed, their Hps 
painted, and their necks and faces artistically powdered and painted. A Japan- 
ese woman is considered very dowdy-looking, indeed, if her hair is not 
elaborately arranged ; and no matter to what social rank you turn, it is rare, in- 
deed, to find one who does not follow the fashion. A very peculiar custom 
among them is to shave their eyebrows off. Another custom, but one which 
the people are gradually dropping, is the blacking of the teeth of married 
women. 

It is very disappointing, at times, to be riding down the street and meet a 
handsome Japanese woman — and there are many of them — and see her 
friendly smile suddenly disclose teeth as black as coal. Their walk is very 
peculiar. They all turn their toes in to such an extent that their walk be- 
comes a perfect waddle — the more exaggerated because of the high clogs they 
wear. They cling to this style of walking with the greatest tenacity. A few 
years since a foreigner started a dancing-school in Tokio. He had many pu- 
pils, and for a time things went on quite merrily, but a cloud soon arose. The 
girls' habits of walking prevented them from dancing well, and the teacher 
commenced teaching them to turn their toes out. They obeyed without a 
murmur; but the next day the teacher was informed that he might teach the 
girls to dance, but he must let their walking alone ; that it was a national cus- 
tom to walk in their manner, and it must be followed, and any interference 
with it would lose him his pupils. 

Generally gay and lively, often light and frivolous, the Japanese is disposed 
to turn everything into pleasantry. He skims over the surface, and rarely 
goes to the bottom of things. He excels in light criticism, caricatures and 
humorous conceptions. In politics he makes a clever opposition journalist 
and a dangerous writer of epigrammatic political pamphlets. 

A few years ago the stranger on landing in Japan might have imagined 
himself transported back to feudal times. Soldiers dressed in coats of mail, 
and armed with the lance, citizens clothed in long, loose vestments, princely 
processions, a feudal organization permeating the whole social fabric, and con- 
trolling all interests and classes, met him at every turn. The outward 
signs of this primitive civilization are gradually fading away. The mighty 
influences of steam and electricity are making themselves everywhere felt; 
railways are being built, canals dug, telegraphs erected, mines opened and 
worked on the newest and most improved systems. The civilization of the 
West is pouring into the land through a thousand different channels. 




BOTANICAL GARDEN, ADELAIDE. 



AUSTRALIA. 




'USTR/\LIA is an immense island, containing- three millions of 
square miles, and is about as extensive as all the United States. 
It is yet in its infancy, and may hereafter, from its great re- 
sources and its geographical position, become the greatest 
country on the globe. This great island was discovered by the 
Dutch in 1610, but the whole of it is now claimed as a territory 
of Great Britain. Captain James Cook, the celebrated navigator, 
took possession of it in 1770. It is divided into North Australia, West 
Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. 
Of all the Australian colonies the oldest is New South Wales, it havine been 
settled in 1788; and till West Australia was established, in 1829, it included 
all the English settlements in the country. It was originally much more ex- 
tensive than it is now, including much of Victoria and Queensland, which were 
separated from it in 1851. Its area in acres is about five times that of Eng- 
land and Wales, and more than half as large again as France. 

Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, is the oldest city of Australia. 
It is well built, with fine, broad streets and imposing public buildings, which, 
combined with its commanding situation on a splendid harbor, has gained for 
it the appellation of "The Queen of the South." Port Jackson, the harbor 
of Sydney, for variety, extent, and picturesque combinations, rivals, if it does 

(462) 



AUSTRALIA. 463 

not surpass, the celebrated harbor of Rio de Janiero. Mr. Anthony Trol- 
lope speaks of it as " so inexpressibly lovely that it makes a man ask himself 
whether it would not be worth his while to move his household gods to the 
eastern coast of Australia, in order that he might look on it as long as he can 
look at anything." 

Victoria, once called Australia Felix from its beauty and fertility, though 
the smallest of the Australian colonies, is the most populous and the most 
wealthy. Melbourne, capital of the colony, has, in the course of forty years, 
become a city of 200,000 inhabitants, or, with the suburbs within a ten-mile 
radius, 250,000, thus already taking rank in the ninth place amongst the cities 
of the British empire, while in other respects unquestionably one of the best- 
built and finest in the world. As this city is but little known to the world at 
large, it seems desirable that we should give a brief statement of its wonderful 
history, and description of its present characteristics. 

John Pasco Fawkner died at Melbourne on September 4th, 1869, the un- 
disputed oldest inhabitant in a vast city that had no existence when he sailed 
up the Yarra-yarra in the schooner Enterprise in the summer of 1835. Where 
in the midst of a wilderness he had plowed his land and grown his first crop 
of wheat a city had arisen which, with its suburban townships, numbered nearly 
170,000 souls. Long lines of carriages followed the pioneer to his grave, 
and the people in their thousands lined the spacious streets as the proces- 
sion passed. 

Cook, Flinders and Grant did little more than name the prominent head- 
lands along the southern shores of Australia. Lieutenant Murray, R. N., 
1802, discovered Port Philip bay, and in the following year Colonel Collins, 
with soldiers and convicts to the number of 402, attempted to form a setde- 
ment on its shores. A bad site was chosen ; the expedition was a failure, and 
in 1804 the setdement was transferred to Van Diemen's Land. One man 
named Buckley ran away into the bush and lived for thirty years among the 
natives. In 1824 two catde-owners in New South Wales came in search of 
new pasture-grounds along the Murray river and across the Australian Alps 
to the present site of Geelong, but returned without accomplishing any result 
beyond exploring the district. The first attempt to colonize the territory now 
known as Victoria was in 1834, when Mr. Thomas Henty, with a few free 
setders, located themselves at Pordand bay, 234 miles from where Melb9urne 
now stands. In the following year John Batman led a party to Port Philip 
bay and made a remarkable treaty with the blacks, by which they ceded to 
him 600,000 acres for a quantity of blankets and tomahawks, or, as one ac- 
count states, for " three sacks of glass beads, ten pounds of nails, and five 
pounds of flour." The English government subsequendy annulled this con- 
tract, but the representatives of Batman received £7,000 in compensation. 
Three months after Batman and his helpers had got to work John Fawkner's 



464 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

schooner sailed past their settlement and up the Yarra-yarra, and was made 
fast to a eucalyptus tree on the bank, opposite to where the Melbourne Cus- 
tom House, an ornament to the city, now stands. 

The news of the discovery of rich pastures in the neighborhood of Port 
Philip bay soon spread far and wide. In spite of some opposition from the 
British government, emigrants flocked thither from New South Wales and 
Tasmania, taking with them their sheep and cattle. At the end of a few 
months the settlement contained a population of 224, of whom 38 were 
women. The possessions of the colonists included 75 horses, 555 head of 
cattle, and 41,332 sheep. It was at this period that William Buckley, the con- 
vict, who had escaped from the disastrous expedition of Collins in 1803, 
returned to his compatriots. He had been thirty-three years among the 
blacks and quite forgotten his own language. 

There was little in "The Settlement," as infant Melbourne was for some 
time called, to suggest its future wealth and vastness. In January, 1838, there 
were a couple of wooden houses serving as hotels for the country settlers 
when they brought up their wool to send off by ship, or for new arrivals on 
their way to the "bush." "A small square wooden building" (says Mr. 
George Arden, an eye-witness), "with an old ship's bell suspended from a 
most defamatory-looking, gallows-like structure, fulfilled the duty of church 
or chapel to the various religious denominations, whence, however, the solemn 
voice of prayer and praise, sounding over the yet wild country, had an effect 
the most interesting and impressive." There were two or three shops, each 
selling anything useful, and a branch of a Tasmanian bank. Six months 
later numerous brick houses of two or three stories had risen ; the inns had 
become handsome and convenient ; streets were marked out and macadamized; 
the population had quadrupled, and a multitude of dealers had opened various 
kinds of shops. 

Fawkner opened the first inn, and on January ist, 1838, started the first 
newspaper, The Melbourne Advertiser. The first nine numbers were in manu- 
script, and limited to a circulation of one copy, which was kept at Fawkner's 
bar for public use. 

With the exception of a disastrous financial crash in 1842, the result of 
over-speculation and land-jobbing, the history of Melbourne till the gold 
discoveries in 1851 was a history of steady progress and success. Scarcely 
was the Port Philip settlement five years old when it began to clamor for 
separation from New South Wales. In 1842 its local institutions were im- 
proved, and it was allowed to send six delegates to the Legislative Council 
at Sydney. But Melbourne continued agitating till, in 1850, its prayer was 
granted, and the British Parliament passed an act by which, on July ist, 185 1, 
Port Philip became a separate colony, under the new name of Victoria, said to 
have been chosen by the queen herself. 



AUSTRALIA. 465 

But it was in this year, ever memorable in tlie history of Melbourne, that 
a rich gold-field was discovered within a hundred miles of the city, at Ballarat. 
The discovery of gold changed, as by the wave of the magician's wand, the 
entire future of life in Australia. The pulse of the community, which ere- 
while beat quietly and steadily, at once mounted to fever-heat. There was 
but one theme on every lip, and that theme was "gold." It intoxicated the 
whole body of the people. They rushed pell-mell to the various spots where 
the dazzling metal was supposed to be obtainable. The laborer left his 
implements of toil and ran. The mechanic quitted his bench. The clerk 
abruptly threw up his situation. The merchant left his counting-room. The 
barrister left his case unfinished. Melbourne was all but deserted. In the 
course of a few months about one-half of the entire male population of the 
colony had left their wonted avocations and gone on the popular adventure. 
Then, too, the people came " in hot haste " from the neighboring colonies, 
crowd following crowd as fast as ships by sea and conveyances by land would 
bring them — men of every shade of character, and thousands with no char- 
acter at all, each and every one attracted by the bewildering glare of virgin 
gold. Little wonder that business came to a stand-still ; that the old land- 
marks were torn up ; that the foundations of society were out of course, and 
that social disorganization, rapine, dissipation, and even murder, speedily 
prevailed. 

Not less than 10,000 persons landed at Melbourne in one week in 1851. 
Successful diggers came down to the city, squandered their gold like mad- 
men, and went to search for more. It became possible to realize vast fortunes 
by supplying the wants of the gold-seekers, when men were willing to give an 
ounce of gold for a bottle of champagne. Lodgings of any kind were at a high 
premium ; to be allowed to stretch on the floor of a hotel coffee-room was the 
utmost favor many could obtain. The boilers of a steamer lying on the wharf 
were used as a sleeping-place by people who would have paid well for beds 
if money could have obtained them. To meet the exigencies of the case a 
town of tents, known as Canvas Town, rose on the St. Kilda road. Several 
thousand inhabitants lived in this temporary settlement, which was regularly 
laid out in streets, and existed for several months. 

The government service had a great difficulty in keeping up its staff of 
officials. An eminent lawyer from Sydney, appointed to a seat on the bench 
of the Supreme Court of Victoria, could find nowhere to lay his head, and 
after spending one night in an arm-chair at the Melbourne Club, resigned the 
appointment and went back. At one period the police force sank far below 
the required strength. A mounted force, known as the Cadets, was enrolled, 
in which many young men who found the labor of gold-digging did not suit 
them were glad to earn good wages. These guardians of the peace had for 
a time a prospect of plenty of work before them. The convicts from Tasmania 

30 



466 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

had rushed over in swarms. But, notwithstanding the disorganization pro- 
duced by the gold-fever, order was on the whole remarkably well maintained. 
For a while bushrangers made the roads to the diggings unsafe. During 
1852-3-4 there were frequent robberies, but with the excitement of those years 
all disorderly symptoms passed away, and the colony of Victoria settled down 
into a law-abiding community. With the exception of the Ballarat riots in 
December, 1854, no serious disturbance is recorded in its history. Gold 
brought together a teeming population, developed all the resources of the 
country, constructed railways, and made Melbourne. 

Several expeditions have been undertaken by the Australians for the pur- 
pose of unveiling the secrets hidden in the interior of their great continent. 

In 1859 twenty-four fleet camels were procured from India for an expedi- 
tion. The command was given to Robert O'Hara Burke, a superintendent 
of Victoria police, and previously connected with the Irish constabulary and 
Australian cavalry. One of his colleagues was William John Wills, of the 
Melbourne Observatory, a young hero with a passionate love for exploration. 
In August, i860, the party, consisting of fifteen men with their camels and 
provisions for twelve months, set forth amidst the acclamations of the Mel- 
bourne citizens. A depot was established at the Barcoo river, and on Decem- 
ber 1 6th Burke and Wills, with two men named Gray and King, pushed 
forward with a horse and six camels northward, and at length reached the 
Flinders river, where they met the tidal waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

On February 23d, i86i, they commenced the return journey, having 
accomplished the feat of crossing the Australian continent. On April 21st 
Burke, Wills and King reached the Barcoo rendezvous to find it deserted. 
The expedition had abandoned the depot that day, giving their companions 
up for lost. The three adventurers wandered about in the wilderness till near 
the end of June, subsisting miserably on the bounty of the natives, and partly 
by feeding on the seeds of the nardoo plant. At length both Burke and 
Wills died of starvation. 

Melbourne abounds in edifices as substantial and enduring as are those of 
any place in the world ; the material, bluestone, of which most of the ware- 
houses and many of the public buildings are in whole or in part constructed, 
being, so to speak, of an imperishable nature. The House of Parliament, 
situated on an elevated site at the top of Bourke street, with its grand facade 
and tower, 270 feet in height, is a magnificent structure. The richly decorated 
halls in which the two chambers meet have each a measurement of 76 feet by 
40 feet, and 36 feet in height. There are splendidly-appointed reading and 
other rooms for senatorial comfort and convenience and a well-stocked 
library. 

Melbourne has a university which is endowed by government, the profes- 
sors having liberal salaries and residences. In connection with the university 



AUSTRALIA. 



467 



there is a museum — a large hall with gralleries runnintr round it — in which are 
displayed stuffed specimens of Australian birds, beasts and reptiles. The 
immense variety of Marsupialia, for which Australia is so remarkable, is here 
fully exemplified. Upon the walls are displayed the bones of the diprotodon 
— an awful kangaroo of the tertiary epoch, whose pouch rivalled the capacity 
of a modern omnibus. 

There are several markets in Melbourne. One of the principal, and 
perhaps the most interesting, is the Eastern, familiarly known as " Paddy's 
Market." Early in the morning on Wednesdays and Saturdays this market 
presents an animated scene. The abundant stores of potatoes, cabbages, 
pineapples, peaches, 
apricots, plums, and 
a variety of other 
fruits and vegetables, 
attract a goodly con- 
course of buyers. 
But it is on Saturday 
night that this market 
bursts forth in its full 
glory, when the stalls 
are lit up with gas- 
light. 

Along the pas- 
sages an immense 
crowd of men and 
women and boys and 
girls passes continu- 
ously, gazing, buying, talking, laughing, whilst the dealers shout the merits 
of their wares. Everything that can be eaten or drunk, or worn, or worked 
with or played with, seems on sale here. Oysters, stockings, crockery, chisels, 
Bibles, song-books, old clothes, opossums, tin-ware, black swans, and innumer- 1 
able other things are all near at hand ; fish, flesh, fowl, and vegetables of every 
sort are cheap and plentiful. " Cheap Jack " shouts his bargains, and Punch 
and Judy and Dog Toby attract their crowd as in the old country. 

Mutton is a very abundant article. "I was attracted by a loud voice," 
says an eye-witness, " calling out, 'This way for cheap mutton ! ' A red-faced 
man in butcher's garb was standing on a barrow in the midst of the crowd. 
Around him were piled a number of half-carcasses of sheep, ready-dressed 
for cooking. The mutton was sweet and of fair average quality. The sales- 
man was holding up his half-sheep (cut lengthways through the middle), 
while he waved the other hand with animated gestures toward his audience. 
' Cheap mutton here ! Come along ! Now's your time ! Who'll buy cheap 




ORNITHORH YNCHUS. 



468 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 



mutton ? ' A pause ensues ; the mutton is lowered for a moment to ease the 
arm ; up it goes once more, and then I hear him sing out, ' Sold again and got 
the sugar' (colonial slang for ready money). 'Half a sheep for a shilling!' 
The purchaser was a little girl, who tottered along with her load as if she 
held a little brother upsidedown. A young man took another at the same 
price. But there were few bidders ; the supply was evidently greater than the 
demand ; and it was certain that the salesman would have several half-car- 
casses unsold. . . . What, I thought, would the starving poor, the employed 

and unemployed classes 
of other great towns and 
cities think of this — half 
a sheep for a shilling, 
and scarcely any bid- 
ders ! " 

In Little Bourke street , 
there is a Chinese quar- 
ter. In the dull, dark, 
and not very clean shops, 
tea, rice, opium, and va- 
rious articles specially 
required by the Chinese 
are the chief commodi- 
ties sold. The adjacent 
houses are tenanted by 
swarms of Celestials. Of 
these Chinese immigrants 
numbers are hawkers in 
the streets of Melbourne, 
carrying about various 
fancy wares in baskets 
suspended from the ends 
of stout bamboo- canes 
laid across their shoul- 
ders. At Emerald Hill there is a Chinese joss-house, or place of worship, 
with all the appurtenances for the due celebration of religious rites. 

The old colony of South Australia is generally flat, as compared with 
Victoria or New South Wales. Although so far south, and therefore farther 
from the tropics, and geographically more temperate, yet South Australia is 
very hot, and perhaps suffers more during the summer months of December, 
January and February than any of the other colonies, the thermometer often 
rising at Adelaide, the capital, to i io° or 115° in the shade; but the rest of 
the year is pleasant. 




AUSTRALIAN. 



AUSTRALIA. 469 

The climate of West Australia is generally admitted to be one of the finest 
known. The mortality of the whole colony is said to have averaged only one 
per cent, since its formation, that of Great Britain being about two and a half 
per cent. Snow is unknown, and ice is only seen in the morning and in the 
depth of winter. For men able to work, who possess a very small capital, 
and have some knowledge of agriculture, there is probably no country in the 
world where a comfortable and even a luxurious existence may be attained as 
easily as in West Australia. 

Queensland possesses a more uniformly hot climate than the more southern 
settlements. Over by far the larger part of the colony frost and ice are un- 
known ; while at Brisbane, the capital, the winter — June, July and August — 
is a most delightful season, with cool mornings and eveningfs, bright and 
warm days, the sky always blue, and the air wonderfully transparent. The 
colony is almost entirely free from epidemic diseases, and is very favorable to 
•those with a tendency to consumption. 

The great agricultural specialty of Australia is its wool, the produce of 
about fifty millions of sheep. Mining forms one of the most remunerative 
branches of industry. South Australia contains productive copper mines ; 
New South Wales extensive coal measures, and especially gold. The richest 
gold-fields, however, are those of Victoria. In New South Wales a consider- 
able number of diamonds have been discovered ; and these valuable gems 
have also been found in Victoria and Queensland. 

The natives of Australia are described as the most degraded people in 
the world. They are black, and have frizzled hair like negroes ; and they 
have very lean arms and legs. Their features have a resemblance to the 
monkey tribe, and they are said to be not much handsomer or more intelligent 
than the orang-outangs found in the Malaysian islands. 

When Captain Cook, about one hundred years ago, was describing the 
naked savages of the east coast of Australia, he said : " Their principal orna- 
ment is the bone which they thrust through the cartilage which divides the 
nostrils from each other. Our seamen, with some humor, called it their sprit- 
sail-yard ; and, indeed, it had so ludicrous an appearance that, till we were used 
to it, we found it difficult to refrain from laughter." 

The exceedingly wide-spread custom of tattooing the skin may also be 
alluded to here, as the result of the same propensity as that which produces 
the more serious deformations. The rudest form of the art was practised by 
the now extinct Tasmanians and some tribes of Australians, whose naked 
bodies showed linear or oval raised scars, arranged in a definite manner on the 
shoulders and breast, and produced by gashes inflicted with sharp stones, into 
which wood-ashes were rubbed, so as to allow of healing only under unfavor- 
able conditions, leaving permanent large and elevated cicatrices, conspicuous 
from being of a lighter color than the rest of the skin. 




LAKE ROTHE-MAHANA. 



NEW ZEALAND. 




*N the centre of the South Pacific, and far removed from the shores 
of Australia, rises the island group bearing the name of New 
IJflf Zealand. It consists of two large and several smaller islands, 
with a total area estimated at 101,000 square miles. The two 
large islands are marked by striking physical differences. North 
Island, with its varied outlines, consists of two sections — the north- 
western peninsula, abounding in fertile and well-watered valleys, and 
the main body of the island, characterized by gently sloping hilly ranges and 
low-lying table-lands, varied here and there by volcanic peaks. The country 
is everywhere covered with a luxuriant growth of timber, except in the heart 
of the island, which is full of lakes, hot springs and geysers, depositing silica 
and sulphur, like those of the Yellowstone Park in the United States. 

South Island, which is the longer and more extensive of the two, presents 
a very different physical aspect. Its western side is traversed in its entire 
length by the so-called Southern Alps, a massive range from 10,000 to 13,000 
feet high, whose slopes, up to the snow-line, are densely wooded. Towards 
the west they contain vast snow-fields and glaciers, extensive tracts filled with 
stony detritus, clefts and fissures of enormous depth, whence flow icy streams 
to the lakes of the table-land. 

(470) 



NEW ZEALAND. 



471 



The lakes of New Zealand deserve especial notice, as they present many 
interesting features. They may be generally classed as due either to volcanic 
or glacial action, the former being the case in the North, the latter in the 
South Island. In the lake region of North Island there are remarkable groups 
of hot springs of various degrees of temperature. 

But the most wonderful part of the lake region is the small Rothe-Mahana, 
or Warm lake, with its boiling springs and silicious terraces. Almost every- 
where around the lake there is a seething, hissing and boiling sound from the 
numerous escapes of steam, boiling water, or hot mud ; while in the lake itself 
hot springs are so numerous that the whole body of water is kept at a tem- 
perature of 90° or upwards. 

The aborigines of New Zealand are called Maoris. These Maoris (which 
in their language means simply 
"men") are dying out quite as 
rapidly as are the Hawaiians, to 
whom they are akin. In 1842 their 
numbers were estimated at 1 14,- 
000; in 1850 at 70,000; now 40,- 
000. According to their own 
tradition their ancestors came 
hither some 400 years ago, in 
canoes, from an island which they 
called Hawaiki, supposed by some 
to be Hawaii; by others, who think 
it unlikely that canoes could make 
that long voyage of 4,000 miles, 
one of the nearer Navigator group. 
The first supposition finds some 
support from the fact that when 
Cook was there, in 1 766, his Ha- 
waiian interpreter found no difii- 
culty in conversing with the Maoris. 
Whether there were any human 
dwellers on the island before the 
Maoris arrived there is very un- 
certain. The only quadruped they 
found was a kind of rat ; but birds 
were plentiful, and the waters 
abounded in fish, which, with the 
roots of a kind of flag, and sweet potatoes, which they apparently brought 
with them, constituted their chief food when the whites first came in contact 
with them. 




NEW ZEALANDER. 



472 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

Physically, the Maoris are 'a fine people. In stature and physical strength 
they will compare favorably with Europeans. Mentally and morally, in most 
respects, they rank far above the majority of uncivilized people. Generally 
they are of a light-brown color, with straight, black hair and prominent 
features. 

New Zealand is most favorably situated for the growth of all the fruits 
and vegetables of the temperate zone. In minerals, though late in the field, 
it now almost rivals the richest colonies of Australia. Large amounts of silver 
have also been exported. 

The Maoris are fully conscious of their approaching fate, a fate in which 
not only the people .themselves, but also the native vegetable and animal life 
seem involved. The Maoris righdy say: "As the white man's rat has exdr- 
pated our rat, so the European fly is driving out our fly. The foreign clover 
is killing our ferns, and so the Maori himself will disappear before the white 
man." 



POLYNESIA. 




^"^'j^OLYNESIA consists of many groups of small islands, which are 
scattered over a large extent of the Pacific ocean. None of them 
':fj^ are wholly occupied by civilized people. 

'^^ The Sandwich islands are among the most important in Poly- 

nesia. The islands were discovered by Captain Cook, in 1777, and 
named in honor of the Earl of Sandwich. In February, 1 779, the famous 
navigator was killed by the natives on the shore of Kaawaloa bay, 
Hawaii. The spot wHere he fell is now marked by a stone shaft, erected by- 
England in 1874. 

"As these islands are not united under one government," says an early 
account of their discover)', " wars are frequent among them. The inhabitants 
are undoubtedly of the same race as those that possess the islands south of 
the equator ; and in their persons and manner approach nearer to the New 
Zealanders than to their less distant neighbors either of the Society or Friendly 
islands. Tattooing is practised by the whole of them." Some ten or twelve 
years after their discovery a Napoleonic king of Hawaii invaded successfully 
the several islands of the group, conquered and placed them under his own 
rule, and founded a dynasty that lasted until February, 1874. 

From their conquest undl the present day the population of the island has 
steadily and rapidly decreased. Out of an esdmated total of 400,000 natives 
in 1779, only 58,765 remained in 1866, and this latter number was sdll further 
diminished between the years 1866 and 1872 to 51,531. The causes of this 



POLYNESIA. 473 

decrease are said to be "wars, drunkenness and human sacrifices;" but, ac- 
cording to native traditions, vast numbers of the people were swept away 
during the first part of the present century by periodical epidemics of small- 
pox and measles. Whatever the cause, the ominous fact remains. 

The natives are simple, honest, and obviously cheerful and contented ; but, 
like all residents of the tropics, they are wanting in physical energy. "The 
people," says a recent writer, "are surprisingly hospitable, and know how to 
make a stranger at home ; they have leisure and know how to use it pleasandy ; 
the climate controls their customs in many respects, and nothing is pursued 
at fever-heat, as with us." 

A great drawback to the progress of the islands was, until late years, the 
lack of steam communication with the United States ; but this has been re- 
moved by the Pacific Mail Company, whose steamers now touch at Honolulu 
once a month, on their voyages between San Francisco and Australia. 

The Society islands likewise belong to Polynesia. They are situated about 
a thousand miles south of the equator, which is nearly the same distance 
that the Sandwich islands are north of it. 

The largest of the Society islands is called Tahiti, or Otaheite. It is a 
hundred miles in circumference, and is inhabited by about ten thousand people. 
Like the nadves of the Sandwich islands, they are generally handsome and 
of agreeable manners. 

The Otaheitan men are a fine, tall set ; the women very handsome and 
graceful, but somewhat small. They are very fond of dress, and attend the 
missionary chapels in wonderful costumes formed of portions of a European 
toilette. They have been brought under the influence of Christianity by 
Methodist pastors. 

Byron, in his poem, " The Island," has written a beautiful description of 

Otaheite : 

" The chase, the race, the liberty to roam, 
The soil where every cottage showed a home ; 
The sea-spread net, the lightly-launched canoe; 
Which stemmed the studded archipelago 
O'er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles ; 
The healthy slumber caused by sportive toils ; 
The palm, the loftiest dryad of the woods. 
Within whose bosom infant Bacchus broods. 

" The cava-feast, the yam, the cocoa's root. 
Which bears at once the cup, and milk, and fruit; 
The bread-tree, which, without the ploughshare, yields 
The unreaped harvest of unfurrowed fields." 




DYAKS OF BORNEO. 



THE MALAYSIAN ISLANDS. 



y^^^ff?MERICA ought no longer to be called the New World; for one 
composed of the islands which lie in the Pacific and Indian oceans 
is newer, and to this region the name of Oceania, or Oceanica, 
has been given. If all the islands were put together, they would 
cover a space of at least four millions of square rhiles ; that is a space 
larger than the whole of Europe. Those islands which lie in the Indian 
ocean, near the continent of Asia, are called Malaysia. The largest of 
them are Borneo, Sumatra, and Java. Scarcely anything has been written 
about the history of Malaysia, for the islands are chiefly inhabited by the 
natives, who keep no record of passing events, and have no desire to know 
the deeds of their forefathers. 

The history of Java is best known, but it is not very important or inter- 
esting. It was discovered by the Portuguese in the year 1510. They found 
it an exceedingly fertile island, producing abundance of sugar, coffee, rice, 
pepper, spices, and delicious fruits. There were also mines of gold, silver, 
diamonds, rubies and emeralds. The island is six hundred and fifty miles in 
length. Soon after its discovery, the Dutch got possession of a large portion 

of it. They built the city of Batavia, on the north-western coast of the island. 

(474) 



THE MALAYSIAN ISLANDS. 



475 



The city is situated on a low, marshy plain, and canals of stagnant water are 
seen in many of the streets. But the edifices were so splendid that Batavia 
was called the Queen of the East. Its beauty was much increased by the 
trees that overshadowed the streets and canals. In the year 1780 the popula- 
tion amounted to a hundred and sixty thousand. People from all the dif- 
ferent parts of the world were among them. But the Europeans were the 
fewest in number, although the government was in their hands. For a time 
Batavia rapidly declined ; the climate was so unhealthy that strangers were 
attacked by dreadful fevers. Of late years the city has been rendered more 
healthy by drainage. In the year 181 1 the English took possession of the 
island of Java. They kept it till 1816, and then restored it to its former 
owners. The Dutch are said to exercise great tyranny over the natives. 




A. VOLCANIC CONE. 



The great mountains of Java are all volcanic cones, situated for the most 
part near the central line of the island. Eight of these exceed 10,000 feet; 
seven more exceed 9,000, and eight are between 7,000 and 9,000 feet high, 
and there are many others of less elevation. The total number of volcanic 
peaks in Java is said to be forty-six, of which twenty are more or less in a 
state of activity. 

The celebrated Valley of Poison is an extinct crater about half a mile in 
circumference, which is an object of terror to the inhabitants of the country. 
Every living thing which penetrates into this valley falls down dead, and the 
bottom is covered with bones and carcasses of tigers, deer, birds, and even 
of men, all killed by the copious emanations of carbonic acid gas. In another 
crater there are sulphurous exhalations which have killed tigers, birds, and 



476 THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 

innumerable insects. The tales of the deadly " upas tree," which was said to 
destroy all creatures which slept beneath its shade, or any birds which flew 
over it, have originated in the word " upas " (poison) being applied to these 
places and also to a poisonous tree charged with the gases from them. 

Of the two aboriginal races of Malaysia, the Malays and the Papuans, the 
Malays are decidedly the more populous and important. They have spread 
their language, their domestic animals, and some of their customs widely 
throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans. They are held to belong to the 
so-called Mongolian division of mankind. They may be divided into two 
great groups — the savage and the semi-civilized peoples. The Dyaks of 
Borneo are the best example of the former. They have no writing or litera- 
ture ; no regular government or religion, and they wear only the scantiest cloth- 
ing of the usual savage type. But they are by no means a low class of savages, 
for they build good houses, they cultivate the ground, they make pottery and 
canoes, they work in iron, and they even construct roads and bridges. At home 
they are ingenious in their use of wood, bamboo, and a sort of felt cloth with 
which they roof their houses. We have seen a set of tiny models of Malay 
workmanship, all executed in these materials, including little houses, household 
utensils, a yoke for carrying weights across the shoulders, and a bridge fit to 
span a torrent or narrow river, with a host of other articles. 

The Malays excel as seamen, and Malay sailors are in the Eastern seas 
what the Maltese are in the Mediterranean ports. But it must be confessed 
that they bear a worse character. The " treacherous Malay " comes up again 
and again in all tales of Eastern mutinies or piracies ; and his dark skin and 
lithe form have frequently earned him, from rough English captains, the name 
of a " Malay Devil." 

" He is as treacherous as his coral reef. 
As supple as his palm, and though he loves 
The colors of his bird of paradise, 
His heart is as his skin — and both are dark." 



INDEX. 



Agriculture and commerce of England, iS. 

Army and navy of England, 22. 

Alfred the Great, 30. 

Assassination of William Rufus, 42. 

Attempt of England to subjugate Scotland, 58. 

Agincourt, Battle of, 73. 

Armada, Destruction of the Spanish, 86. 

Art, literature and science in England, 125. 

Agriculture and manufactures in Ireland, 13I, 

Agriculture and manufactures in Scotland, 148. 

All climates within the United States territory, 161. 

Americus Vespucius, 168. 

American Independence, 171. 

Argentine Confederation, 179. 

Aboriginal inhabitants of Canada, 190. 

America, Discovery of, by John Cabot, igO. 

Arnold and Major Andre, 217. 

America, First book printeil in, 221. 

Adams' administration, 225. 

Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 245. 

of President Garfield, 252. 
American painters and sculptors, 271. 

inventive talent, 272. 
Assassination of Julius Caesar, 282. 
Augustan age of Roman literature, 282. 
Attempted assassination of King Humbert, 298. 
Assassination of Marat by Charlotte Corday, 305. 
Architecture in Paris, 312. 
Art and literature in Spain, 317. 
Alhambra, Palace of the, 316. 
Anecdote of Murillo, 318. 

of Marshal Soult, 318. 
Alfonso, King of Spain, 322. 
Amusements and recreations of Scandinavia, 330. 
Arnold von W'inkelried, 334. 
Alpine ascents, 336. 

Art, science and literature of Germany, 348. 
Austria, its government and population, 357. 
Assassination of Alexander II. of Russia, 373. 
Alexander III. of Russia, 373. 
Algiers, 422. 

Abdel Kader defeated by the French, 424. 
African wild animals, 425. 

Pigmies, 425. 

explorers, 428. 
Arabia and the Arabs, 434. 
Australian colonization, 462. 

gold-diggings, 465. 
Aboriginal inhabitants of Australia, 469. 



B 



British tribes and races, II. 
Boadicea, Queen, 26. 
Battle of Hastings, 37. 
Bacon, Roger, 56. 
Hards, the Welsh, 56. 
Battle of Cregy, 62. 

of Poictiers, 63. 

of Agincourt, 73. 

of Bosworth, 80. 
Bloody Mary, 84. 



Bacon, Francis, Lord, 89. 

Bunyan, John, 103. 

Battle of the Boyne, 105, 

Boyne, Battle of the, 105. 

Beaconsfield, Lord, 122. 

Blarney Stone, in Ireland, 134. 

Bruce, King Robert, 157. 

Battle of Bannockburn, 158. 

Balboa's discovery of the Pacific, 169. 

Benito Juarez, 173, 

Bolivar, Simon, 178. 

Brazil, the country and people, 181. 

British Columbia, 199. 

Boston Harbor, Destruction of tea in, 210. 

Battle of Lexington, 212. 

of Bunker Hill, 213. 

of Trenton, 214. 
Bennington, Battle of, 214. 
Burgoyne, Surrender of, 216. 
Ilurr, Aaron, 227. 
B.attle of Buena Vista, 237. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 263. 
Book-illustration in the United States, 271. 
Beauty of Florence, 288. 
Bridge of .Sighs, Venice, 290. 
B.ay.ard, The Chevalier, 302. 
Bastile, Storming of the, 304. 
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 306. 
Boulanger, General, 313. 
BulI-fighting in Spain, 322, 
Battle of Lutzen, 32S. 

of Mortgarten, 333. 

of .Sempach, 333. 

of Nefels, 334. 
Belgium, 337. 
Berlin, Life in, 343. 
Bavaria, 360. 
Bohemia, 361. 
Bajazet, Defeat of, 388. 
Battle of Marathon, 398. 

of Thermopylae 399. 

of Aboukir, 413. 
Barb.ary Stales, 422. 
Baalbec, Ruins of, 434. 
Babylon, Fall of, 436. 
British Empire in India, 438. 
Burke and Wills, 466. 



C^dmon, the story of, 28. 

Cnute, King, 34. 

Cregy, Battle of, 62.' 

Chaucer, the Father of English poetry, 66. 

Chevvchase, 69. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 94. 

Culloden, Battle of, no. 

Canada, Conquest of, I lo. 

Catholic emancipation in England, 1 16. 

Cryst.al Palace, 118. 

Crimean War, 120. 

Columbus, Voyages of Christopher, 164. 

Cortez and the conquest of Mexico, 170. 

Chili, its prosperous condition, 179. 

(477) 



478 



INDEX. 



Central America, i8o. 

Cabot, Discoveries by John and Sebastian, 190. 

Canada, Constiiulion of, 197. 

its greatness and vast resources, 197. 
Canadian fisheries, 198. 
Colonization of New England, 204. 
Cornwallis, Surrender of General, 218. 
Clay, Henry, 230. 
Calhoun, John Caldwell, 231. 
Chicago, Great fire in, 249. 
Custer, Death of General, 250. 
Cleveland, Stephen Grover, 253. 
California, Giant trees of, 256. 
Chautauqua Lake, 259. 

Chromolithography in the United States, 271, 
Climate of Italy, 273. 
Carthage, Destruction of, 279. 
Caius Julius Caesar, 280. 
Catacon>hs of Rome, 283. 
Cathedral of Milan, 292. 
Charlemagne, Reign of, 300. 
Charlotte Corday, 305. 
" Cid," Chronicle of the, "315. 
Cervantes, Don Miguel de, 317. 
Camoens and his poem of the Lusiad, 323. 
Charles XII. of Sweden, 329. 
Chamouni, Valley of, 336. 
Cologne Cathedral, 349. 
Catherine the Great of Russia, 367. 
Con'-tnntinople, Siege of, 388. 
Cleopatra, Death of, 411. 
Cairo, Life in, 413. 
Cambyses' conquest of Egypt, 416. 
Calcutta, " Black Hole " of, 438. 
Clive, Robert, 438. 
Cashmere, Valley of, 446. 
China, Great wall of, 450. 
Chinese adverlisemenis, 453. 
Chinese in California, 457. 
Ckinese in Australia, 468. 



Dniidical Sacrifices, 24. 

Dunstan, St., and the Devil, 32. 

Douglas and Harry Hotspur, 72. 

Destruction of the .Spanish Armada, 86. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 87. 

Daniel O'Connell, 137. 

Dublin, 140. 

Discoveries of Cabot, 190. 

Duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr, 223. 

Death of Washington, 225. 

Douglas, Stephen A., 240. 

Death of Lincoln, 245. 

of Custer, 250. 

of Garfield, 252. 
Drake, Joseph Rodman, 262. 
Dante and his Divine Comedy, 288. 
Death of Napoleon Bonaparte, 308. 
" Don Quixote," circumstances under which it 

written, 317. 
Death of Gu^tavus Adolphus, 329. 
Danish liternture, art and science, 330. 
Death of Arnold Von Winkelried, 334. 
Dutch, Character of the, 339. 
Dresden, 346. 
Dervishes, Dancing, 392. 
Desert of Sahara, 424. 
Damascus, Rums of, 433. 
Delhi, Storming of, 440. 
Dancing-girls of India, 446. 



Extent and physical aspect of England, 12. 
Early British tribes and races, 23. 
England, Noiman conquest of, 37. 
Eleanor of Castile, 55. 
England and Scottish border warfare, 69. 
English Revolution, 96. 

statesmanship and oratory, 122. 

literature, science and philosophy, 125. 

rule in Ireland, 130. 
Edwards, Jonathan, 221. 
Ericsson, Inventions of John, 246. 
Earliest inhabitants of Spain, 314. 
Elizabeth, St., 345. 

Empire, Proclamation of the German, 354. 
Early history of Russia, 364. 
Epaminondas, 400. 
Egypt, Ancient civilization of, 407. 
Egyptians, Superstitions of the, 409. 

Invasion of, by Napoleon, 412. 
Egyptian temples, 414. 
Egypt, Conquest of, by Cambyses, 416. 
Egyptian mummies, 419. 
Egyptians, Religion of the Ancient, 419. 
Empire in India, British, 438. 



Flodden, Battle of, 82. 

Fire of London, 102. 

Father Matthew and his temperance campaign, 134. 

Fisheries, Scottish, 149. 

"Fountain of Youth," 168. 

Fisheries, Newfoundland, 198. 

Franklin, Benjamin, and his discoveries, 221. 

Florence, City of, 288. 

Great men born in, 288. 
France, Primitive inhabitants of, 299. 
French monarchy under Clovis, 299. 
France, Wits and literary men of, 303. 
French Revolution. 304. 

Consulate and Empire under Napoleon, 306. 

Republic and Empire under Napoleon III., 308. 
Franco-German war, 308. 

F'rench greatness in literature, science and art, 313. 
Frederick the Great, 342. 
French retreat from Moscow, 370. 
French defeated at Aboukir, 413. 
French, Defeat of Abdel Kader by the, 424. 
Female dwarfing of the feet in China, 455. 

fashions in Japan, 461. 



Godwin and his singular death, 36. 
Gaveston. Beheading of, 59. 
Glendower. Owen, 71. 
Garnet Wolseley, Sir, 122. 
Gordon, " Chinese," 122. 
Gladstone, William Ewart, 124. 
"Giant's Causeway" in Ireland, 139. 
Georgia, Settlement of, 207. 
Grant, General Ulysses S., 247. 
Garfield, As.sa.ssin,Ttion of President, 252. 
Giant trees of California, 256. 
Garibaldi, his life in New York, 296. 
Geographical aspect of Spain, 314. 
Granada, Splendor of, 3 1 6. 
Gustavus Adolphus, his victories, 328. 
Gessler, Death of, by Wilham Tell, 332. 
Germany, Empire of, 340. 

Art, literature and science of, 348. 
Greece, its climate and history, 396. 



INDEX. 



479 



Greece, Philosophers of, 401. 

Orators and Dramatists of, 402. 
Greeks, Religion of the, 406. 
Ganges, Tlie, 443. 

H 

Hastings, Battle of, 37. 

Harry Hotspur, 72. 

Hampden, John, 94. 

Hogarth and his pictures, :ii. 

Highland and Lowland races in Scotland, 146. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 222. 

Hayne, Robert, 234. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., 250. 

Hancock, General Winfield Scott, 254. 

Halleck, J. Fitz-greene, 262. 

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 264. 

Hannibal and his war with Rome, 278. 

Herculaneum, Destruction of, 294. 

Humbert, King of Italy, 298. 

Holland, Scenery of, 339. 

Hohenzollern, House of, 341. 

Hanging-gardens of Babylon, 435. 

Hindoo chronology, 437. 

mytliology and literature, 438. 
Hastings, Warren, 439. 
Havelock, General, 440. 

I 

Indian mutiny, 121. 

Ireland, Character of the country and people, 129. 

English rule in, 130. 

Agriculture and manufactures in, 132. 
Irish statesmen, patriots and orators, 138. 

Early civilization and scholarship of the, 14I. 
Ireland, literature, science and art in, 142. 
Indians, Penn's treaty with the, 205. 
Italy, Climate and physical features of, 273. 
Italian people ; their great achievements, 274. 
India, invaded by Alexander the Great, 438. 

Dancing-girls of, 446. 



Japanese, Manners and customs of, 458. 

love of nature, 459. 

religion and mythology, 459. 
Japan, Female fashions in, 461. 



Killarney, Lakes of, 135. 
Knox, John, 160. 
Kosciusko, Fall of, 367. 
Kremlin at Moscow, 378. 



Literature, Golden age of English, 88. 

of England at the present day, 125. 
Legends of lakes in Ireland, 136. 
Literature of Ireland, 142. 
Lowland races of Scotland, 146. 
Literature of Scotland, 150. 
Lexington, Battle of, 213. 

Literature of tlie American colonial period, 221. 
Lafayette's visit to the United States, 229. 
Lee, Surrender of General, 244. 
Lincoln, Assassination of Abraham, 245. 
Literature of the present day in America, 262. 
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 263. 



Literature and art in Italy, 274. 
Lucretia, Rape of, 276. 
Louis XVI., Execution of, 305. 
Literature of France, 313. 
Literature of the Spanish people, 317, 

of Portugal, 323. 
" Lusiad, The," 323. 
Lutzen, Battle of, 328. 
Luther and the Reformation, 344. 
Literature, science and art of Germany, 348. 
Lycurgus, Draco and Solon, 398. 
Literature of Ancient Greece, 402. 

M 

Magna Charta, 52. 

Margaret of Anjou and the robber, 76. 

Mary, Queen of Scots, 86. 

Milton and his poetry, lOO. 

Methodism, Rise and development of, I09. 

Moore, Poetry of Thomas, 139. 

Mexico, Conquest of by Cortez, 171. 

Maximilian shot, 174. 

Montcalm, Death of, 194. 

Maryland, Settlement of, 201. 

Mayflower, Pilgrnns voyage in the, 202. 

" Monroe Doctrine," 229. 

Morse invents the telegraph, 236. 

Monitor and Merrimac, 245. 

Michael Angelo and Raphael, 286. 

Milan Cathedral, 292. 

Mirabeau, 305. 

Marseillaise hymn, 305. 

Murillo, Anecdote of, 318. 

Madrid, 318. 

Maid of Saragossa, 320. 

Mythology of the Norsemen, 326. 

Margaret, "the Semiramis of the North," 328. 

Mortgarten, Battle of, 333. 

Moltke, Generalship of Von, 353. 

Music and musicians in Austria, 360. 

Moscow, 377. 

M.ahometanism, 386. 

Marathon, Battle of, 398. 

Memnon, Statue of, 416. 

Moses' Well, 416. 

Mummies, Egyptian, 419. 

Mikado of Japan, 458. 

Melbourne, 463. 

Maoris, The, 47 1. 

Malaysian Islands, 474. 

N 

Norman conquest of England, 37. 
Newton and his discoveries, 106. 
Napoleon Bonaparte, 306. 
Nihilists, The, 373. 
Novgorod. 379. 
Nineveh, Ruins of. 434. 
Nautch or dancing-girls of India, 44& 
New South Wales, 462. 



Owen Glendowcr, 71. 
Oglethorpe, James, 207. 



Poictiers, Battle of, 63. 
Poets, Homes of the English, 
Plague of London, I02. 



480 



INDEX. 



Parnell, Charles Stewart, 137. 

Pizarro and the conquest of Peru, 176. 

Penn's treaty witli the Indians, 204. 

Poe, Edgar Allan, 266. 

Payne, John Howard, 266. 

Padua, 291. 

Pompeii, Destruction of, 294. 

Pius IX., 295. 

Peter the Hermit, 300. 

Paris, Magnificence of, 312. 

Prim, Assassination of General, 32I, 

Peter the Great, 365. 

Plague at Athens, 399. 

Philip of Macedon, 400. 

Porus, Defeat of, 401. 

Ph,ilosophers of Greece, 401. 

Palestine and Syria, 429. 

Persia, Climate of, 436. 



Quebec, Founding of, no. 
Capture of, no. 



Robin Hood, Little John and Friar Tuck, 44. 

Richard Creur-de-Lion, 50. 

Rob Roy, 148. 

Kiel's rebellion, 195. 

Romulus and Remus, 274. 

Roman Catacombs, 283. 

Rienzi, Nicoli de, 284. 

Rabelais, 303. 

Russia, History of, 364. 

Russian superstition, 382. 

Rameses the Great, 416. 

Religion of ancient Egypt, 419. 

of the Japanese, 459. 
Rothe-Mahana, Lake, 471. 

s 

Scandinavian invasion of Great Britain, 30. 

Spanish armada, 87. 

Shakespeare, 88. 

Science and art in England, 125. 

Science, art and literature in Ireland, 142. 

Scotland, its freedom and independence, 144, 

Science, art and literature in Scotland, 150. 

Scotland's union with England, 160. 

Scott, General Winfield, 238. 

Signal Service, United States, 260. 

Science, art and literature in the United States, 262. 

in Italy, 274. 

in France, 313. 

in Spain, 317. 
Soult, Anecdote of Marshal, 318. 
Saragossa and its sieges, 319. 
Science, art and literature in Portugal, 323, 
Sea-Kings, 326. 
Swedes and Norwegians, 330. 
Switzerland, early races of, 331. 
Sempach, Battle of, 333. 
Science, art and literature in Germany, 348. 
Siberia, 383. 

Science, art- and literature in Greece, 402. 
Suez Canal, 418. 
Science, art and literature in Japan, 459. 



Tournaments, 58. 
Translation of the Scriptures, 92. 
Trenton, Battle of, 214. 
Taylor and Scott invade Mexico, 237, 
Tilden, Samuel J., 251. 
Tell, William, 332. 
Tyrol and the Tyrolese, 362. 

Turkey, Geographical position and population of, 385. 
Turkish History, 387. 
Shopkeepers, 392. 
Turkey, Women of, 393. 
Thermopylje, Pass of, 399. 
Tadmor, Ruins of, 433. 
Thugs, The, 445. 
Tycoon of Japan, 458. 
Tasmania, 464. 



Union of Scotland and England, 160. 

United States, Remarkable rate of progress of the, 161. 

Settlement of the, 201. 

Treaty of peace between England and the, 
218. 

Signal Service, 260. 



Voyages of Columbus, 1 64. 

Venezuela, 178. 

Vatican and St. Peter's, 286. 

Venice, Grand Canal of, 291. 

Valencia, 315. 

Victories of Gustavus Adolphus, 328. 

Vienna, Siege of, 358. 

Van Diemen's Land, 463. 

w 

William the Conqueror, 37. 

Wat Tyler, Insurrection of, 68. 

Wickliffe and the Reformation in England, 73. 

"Wars of the Roses," 75. 

Warwick the " King-maker," 76. 

Witchcraft and astrology, 78. 

Wolsey, Fall of Cardinal, 82, 

Wallace and Bruce, 157. 

Wolfe, Death of General, 194. 

Washington, George, 219. 

Webster, Daniel, 233. 

Whittier, J. G., 265. 

Westphalia, Peace of, 341. 

William, Emperor of Germany, 351 

Wall, The great Chinese, 450. 



Yosemite Falls, 257. 
Yarra-yarra, 463. 



Zulu war and death of Prince Napoleon, 121. 
Zambesi and the Congo, 428. 
Zealand, New, 470. 



iV^* 



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